Tiger Bone in Meat Video

Another video...

If you listen *real* close...you might hear the sound of bones crunching....

What Ancient Breed are you?

You scored as Elf. You are an elf. very calm yet energetic. You enjoy the finer things in life. You hate to be alone and preffer a small crowd of your closer friends. The ideal girl. Sometimes you can be very, very shy. Open up, life is to be lived, not wasted. Elf 83% Goddess 75% Vampyre 75% Drow 42% Wolf 42% Dragon 42% Zombie 33% Faerie 33% Sorceress 33% Shadow Spirit 25% What ancient breed are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Gotta love the snow leopard....

Here she is hiding on the rocks...



This is the one who lost her tongue 3 years ago...still going strong! :)

Today we gave Jonathan, our male African Lion some large chunks of meat. This was for a member tour called Feline Feeding Frenzy. This tour was offered to our higher level members. Here is a series of pictures of Jonathan with his meat. :)

Spotted...
Grabbed...

Enjoyed...


Don't even think about it...

Still enjoying...


I think he likes it, what do you think?


Yup...Still his... :)

More Enrichment

This is what happens when you throw a (empty) Dr Pepper barrel in with large exotic felines...

Big cats need big toys!

(The local Dr Pepper bottling company is kind enough to donate these barrels to us. This is what the concentrated syrup comes in and, as you can see, makes an excellent toy for a kitty....:))

MINE!

At least, that's what Tuco's saying about his Ozarka Bottle. And I'm not going to argue with him...

Another type of enrichment

Enrichment doesn't always have to be in the form of toys, boxes or scents. You can also present their diet in a unique and unusual way, such as this:


Yes, that is a huge chunk of meat hanging from a rope! :) And here's what the tigers did when they saw it:


And this is the look we got when he thought we got a little too close to the window:


Needless to say, we backed up a little... :)

Bonita is Eight!

Bonita, our female Maned Wolf turned eight years old on the 12th. We celebrated her birthday in true zoo style on the 13th. She had a huge birthday bash that went on all day! Here are some pictures:

First, here's the birthday girl:



And here are the cardboard animals she got as her first gift of the day:


And here she is trying to get the mouse out of the box:



Later that day she also got presents. Here she is checking out her present:



Bonita shares the exhibit with a Tapir and two Giant Anteaters. And in case you've never seen either of these, here are some pictures. :)

Brazilian Tapir, Pico:



And here he is checking out Bonita's box:



Giant Anteaters:

(this picture also shows the fake termite mound that the keepers made for the anteaters. I think they did an excellent job on it! :))

Barbaro Improving!

Barbaro continues to improve. For all the updates on him please go here. He is not out of the woods yet but he is headed in that direction!

A Birthday Celebration!

We celebrated Willie's 23rd Birthday last week. Yes, he got a birthday party with presents and cake. :) Here are some pictures of the celebration!

"Hey!

What does this button do? Uh oh...."

"Did you want something? ...

'Cause I'm kinda busy here and if you don't need something then I'm going to finish what I was doing."

He's the handsomest Jaguar in the whole wide world!

Just 'cause he's cute...

Tuco (aka Toco Toucan) in his favorite bed:



I so love this boy! I am going to miss him when he leaves. We just found out that he will be heading to Tucson (either Reid Park Zoo or Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum - I suspect Reid Park) to be an exhibit animal for them. Needless to say, they will be getting a lot of paperwork, video and pictures along with him! :) His sister will be going to the zoo in Miami and will be paired up with a male for breeding. Sigh...my baby is all grown up and going to a zoo of his own...

Some Tiger Fun...

Some time last month the BBC came out and filmed part of a tiger documentary at the zoo. Part of that included us giving the tigers a large enrichment item in the shape of an elephant. It turned out awesome and the tigers loved it!

Here are the pictures of what happened...

The prey: (ain't he cute!! :)




The stalk:




The attack:




The end: