Hana, our female Malayan Tiger, looking really really cute! I just had to share. :-)

Haley, our female cougar cub, looking all grown up! :-)

So sorry....

I apologize for not updating the blog for so long. So much has been going on that I just haven't been able to do it. Our cougar cub has grown. I will try and get newer photos of her soon. We will also be getting some new animals in the near future. I will post photos of them as soon as can (after they arrive of course!). In the mean time, please take a look at some photos I've posted on Flickr. They include photos from my vacation to visit family in Idaho (including photos from Pocatello Zoo and Utah's Hogle Zoo) and from our first ever Spotlight on the Species. For this we focused on our Cheetahs and Anatolian Shepherd Dogs.

The day was spent doing keeper chats and educating people on Cheetahs, Anatolian Shepherd Dogs and on the cause we were raising money for. That cause was Cheetah Conservation-Botswana. All of the money raised (~$850.00 US) during the event was donated to them for a mobile vet clinic. The clinic will treat not only the Anatolian Shepherd Dogs working on the ranches but also other domestic pets owned by the ranchers. When they did this in January, they sterilized 24 dogs and immunized many more! Both of these things are important. By sterilizing them we are helping reduce the feral dog population and by immunizing them we are helping protect African Wild Dogs. So many diseases that affect the domestic dog also affect the African Wild Dog (in particular, canine distemper). By immunizing the domestic dogs we are helping prevent the spread of the diseases to the wild animal populations.

Photos of the little girl :-)

Another, more entertaining, article

Got this from a friend of mine:

An octopus uses his enrichment in an unexpected way: http://tinyurl.com/d8n3or

Illness forces vets to euthanize recaptured jaguar

What a loss to the wildlife in this country. Perhaps another jaguar will wander in and take over Macho B's territory? One can only hope.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/282823.php

Isn't she adorable!?! This is our new cougar cub. She's an orphan from Idaho and is 3-4 months old. She's a little unsure about all of us but that's okay! I know she'll come around eventually. A lot has changed in for her during her short life. She has quite a bit of attitude which just makes us adore her even more! Below is another photo of her - this time using the flash. She really likes her crate right now and is spending quite a bit of time in even though she has access to the outside. :-)

Various photos....

Kadu

Puck

Hana (new Malayan Tiger!!!!)

We shipped one of our male Malayan tigers, Jammu, to Alexandria Zoo in LA about a month ago. He is there on a breeding recommendation. We now have Hana. She came down to the department last week and is now on exhibit. We will not be putting her and our resident male, Pandu, together as they are fairly closely related. She is, however, very pretty and I fully expect to get lots of photos of her. :-)

Baby Giraffe!!!

The zoo has a new baby giraffe!!! His name is Miles and he's being handraised by our (very experienced) Hoofstock staff. Here are a couple of photos of him at a few weeks of age. :-)

Training Doors and New Mesh!

We've recently had an improvement made to some of our exhibits. We had new mesh and fresh propping installed on 6 of our exhibits. And two (so far) of the exhibits have had training doors installed on them (Clouded leopard and Leopard). The new mesh looks awesome! As does the propping. And I am in love with the training doors! These were designed (with input from us) and built by the zoo welder. He did an awesome job (which, I'm sure, he is getting tired of hearing! lol I keep telling him that every time I see him). Here are some photos of me training Kadu (male leopard) at the training door and some photos of Ivy and Kadu on exhibit with the new mesh.

Me training Kadu at the new door (guest side)

Me training Kadu at the new door (keeper side)


Ivy (Black Leopard) on exhibit

Kadu on exhibit

Christmas and New Years

Both were a lot of fun. For Christmas I went over to a friends' house and had dinner, watched Christmas movies and played Animalopoly. For New Years I had a couple of friends come over to my house and we ate pizza, watched movies and played board games until midnight. :-) Again, lots of fun!

On a happier note....

Tori decided to use me as a pillow/mattress tonight. :-)
This girl may drive me crazy sometimes but she also helps keep me sane!

Miracle passed away unexpectedly a few days before Christmas after a short illness.
Good bye Miracle. We love you and will miss you!