Early morning workouts

30th April 2011

This morning the wrath of Casper was unleashed on this helpless tyre. Casper loves playing with objects like this and you can see from this image how this can be a good workout for him and an opportunity to exert his strength and energy on something - check out those leg muscles. Objects like this are especially effective on Casper if we have previously given it to Diamond and Aysha in the enclosure opposite Casper as after watching the two tigers play with it, he loves the thought that it is now in his possession. We don't know the exact weight of the tyres but from a keepers point of vierw in terms of moving it, the one Casper has here could be in excess of 100kg! It is always amusing to see where the tyre ends up as we will put it in one spot and find that Casper will have moved it, who knows how, to the other side by day's end.

Being a young lion in his prime, Casper really enjoys things like this that he can beat up in a sense.

To try and further replicate bringing down a large mammal, we have even in the past dressed up the tyre with a covering of animal skin to simulate a large grazing herbivore out on the plain. These sorts of enrichments are conducted at the 2.30 and 4.30 big cat feeds, so make sure you don't miss these at your visit to the zoo!

Royal Wedding Celebrated

29th April 2011

Baby Black Lemur Born This Past Week!! + Enrichment for Spider Monkeys

25th April 2011

We are very pleased to announce that a new baby Black Lemur has been born this past week at the Isle of Wight Zoo! Born on the 20th of April, this past Wednesday, the little baby has been clinging onto the underbelly of mother 'Adala' since then. She is very difficult to see but you might be able to catch a glimpse of a tiny head or tail protruding from Adala's underside, probably with father 'Mitsio' (affectionately known as 'Scrappy') making noise near-by. Black Lemur babies cling to their mother's underside for 3 weeks when they will then move onto their mother's backs until they are fully weaned at 5-6 months.

Those of you that have been to the zoo will know that the Black Lemurs are quite small, so one can appreciate the little one's current size in this photo of it's head set against the backdrop of mother Adala's fur. It's head is about the size of a fifty pence piece!

We shall be holding a naming competition for the new Black Lemur once the sex of the young one has been deduced.

The Spider Monkeys got a new object to play with today in the form of a hanging tyre for them to swing on. It is always good to change around the environment the animals live and give them new things to explore, especially adding into the equation the dynamic of a swinging tyre! Here Zoo Curator Paul Bailie tests the fun potential of the swinging tyre before letting out the Spider Monkeys to have a go:



Photo of the Day:

The Spider Monkeys Ike and Jackson also got a few generous spreads of strawberry jam hidden in the climbing wall holds that were put up for them a couple of months back. They hadn't really used the new climbing wall groves since they were installed so what better way to get them to explore their ability and use for climbing that to hide jam inside of them!

Here one of the Spider Monkeys looks at his jam covered fingers before eating the tasty treat whilst showing off his ability to use his prehensile tail as a 5th limb. The shadows make an interesting addition to the image.



Mad Hatter's Tea Party + Tiger's take their first dip in the water this season.

24th April 2011

The Isle of Wight Zoo hosted their Mad Hatter's Tea Party today complete with a full ensemble of characters from Alice in Wonderland represented by the Zoo Staff. Of course the host of the party and honourable Mad Hatter was Mr. Chris Packham. Here he is bringing the festivities to life running commentary in the egg and spoon race segment of the tea party!

Photos of the Day:

As the Ranthambore pond had recently been cleared of pond weed and our resident photographer Karen also had a photography group on today as well as the continuing heat wave, the cat keepers decided it was time to try and get our Tigers Diamond and Aysha to take a dip in the water! With the new giant yres we had delivered we decided to recreate a grazing aquatic deer species, a common prey item for tigers, in the form of a large tyre with a piece of meat tied to the top of it. We placed the tyre in about 2 foot of water so the tigers would have to get their feet wet to get their reward. Indeed, when we let Diamond and Aysha out they were very intrigued with the new presence in their pond and both went over to investigate, ignoring the other piece of meat laying on the bank. Once they were in they had a great time smelling, kocking over and dragging the tyre around in the water. Of course it made for some great shots of the tigers splashing and playing in the water. Unfortunately, I was only able to get to the scene with my camera once most of the fun had ceased but luckily Diamond had decided he really enjoyed being in the water once he had gotten his feet wet and actually found himself another smaller tyre that had been laying at the bottom for God knows how long and decided to carry it out for us! He he is with the small tyre in his mouth:

 Diamond coming out of the water in slow motion trying to recreate the 'Baywatch look' for himself:



Chris Packham visits for Bank Holiday Weekend

23rd April 2011

We had wildlife enthusiast, photographer and tv personality, Chris Packham, visit the zoo yesterday to talk to the public about some of his favourite animals at the zoo. He will be here Sunday as well for the zoo's Alice in Wonderland themed 'Tea Party'.

Photo of the Day:

Here we have a shot of the Ranthambore enclosure in the light of the setting sun. Aysha is at the front resting in the shade while her twin brother Diamond (a 'tabby' tiger, a particularl colour morph of tiger) walks down from his perch in the recreated Ranthambore temple.

Everyones likes an Ice Cream + New Toys for the cats + Roof on Jaguar enclosure

21st April 2011

With the heat wave continuing we noticed the cats eyeing up all the ice creams that were going past their enclosures. A special treat came their way today as they got the luxury of being fed an ice cream. It was most enjoyed once it had warmed up a little and wasn't so cold on their noses. With their very abrasive tongues it left some very interesting marks on the ice cream as it was licked away.

In the meantime, the cat keepers have been scouting out new and exciting things for the cats to do. Keeper Ben visited a farm recently to see if we could increase and diversify our tyre collection for the cats to pull, push and basically destroy all in the name of fun. We got the tyres delivered recently and included were 2 very large tyres. We're not too sure what we're going to do with these yet but I personally am really looking forward to seeing Casper go one on one with one of these! Pictured below is keeper Ben who is approximately 6'3" to give an idea of size:



We also have a new special toy coming in all the way from America for Diamond and Aysha that should be great to see in action. Watch this space to stay updated.

Over the past couple of days the roof has been fitted onto the top of the jaguar enclosure and things are starting to look like their coming together to give a idea of what the new enclosure will fundamentally look like:



Calm Cats

18th April 2011

The cat keepers have been enjoying enriching the cats at the daily big cat feeds. The idea of these feeds is to give the cats a stimulating and challenging experience that exercises their minds and bodies. It may be due to a number of different factors, but we have seen Casper, our young testosterone filled Lion, act a lot more calm towards the keepers as of late. We like to think this is because he is getting a good chance to exert his energy and strength with the 'workouts' we have been giving him. These include having to 'catch' his food as it dangle on a fishing rod or having a tug of war with keepers or a heavy tyre. Today he was so chilled out that he even let us grab this close up portrait shot of him, the photographer being only 10 foot or so away from him.



Photo of the Day:

I have to give a shout out to Diamond this morning for showing his appreciation to the Ranthambore pond being cleared yesterday by coming out and having a drink from it when we first let him out this morning. Diamond's markings and coat pattern are always striking as he has a form of leucism, which basically means he can't produce the black pigment usually seen in tigers in their stripes and facial markings. This is comparable to the white tigers who can't produce the orange pigment. I particularly like this photo as it gives evidence to the large meal we gave him the night before...



Spring cleaning and different perspectives on tigers

17th April 2011

With the sun shining down a lot as of late, the tigers pond in the Ranthambore enclosure where Diamond and Aysha live had taken a turn for the worse in terms of being hit by pond weed. As keepers, we dont appreciate these eyesores that crop up, especially in stark contrast to the magnificent cats and so it was a case of putting on the waders and getting in the pond for some an ol' fashioned weed clearing hoedown. After about an hour, about 80% of the weed had been cleared and we are just waiting now for the wind to gather up the last it so we can scoop that up and then we will have a clear pond for Diamond and Aysha to use.
Here is a before and 'during' photo of the pond being cleared - zoo keeping involves all sorts of jobs!

Before:

Getting there...

Photo of the Day

It's not just the faces of tigers and big cats that are worth photographing. One can see beautiful patterns all over the body of a tiger, here we have the stripe pattern of 'Lola's' back as she goes up to grab a piece of meat sitting atop a pole. I think the white markings on the backs of her ears add a nice touch to the image as well.

Photography Workshops

Our resident photographer Karen runs photography days here at the Isle of Wight Zoo that give all sorts of tips and advice about things such as perspective like this. You will go behind the scenes to special photography stations to get the best vantage point for your shots as well as going in with the lemurs to have your camera equipment cleaned by excessive lemur licking. If you are interested in participating in our of our photography days please contact the zoo to find out when the next photography day is to make a booking.

Smelling The Freshly Cut Grass and Testing the Strength of Carbon Fibre

16th April 2011

The cat keepers along with the cats enjoyed testing the strength of different materials today as we had our fishing rod that we use to feed our cats break again. This time it was at the base where it was thickest and where we didn't think it was as vulnerable. Obviously we were wrong. The cat that proved this for us was our youngest and one of our strongest cats Casper the White Lion. We have now had to reinforce the rod with steel piping inside the hollow carbon frame. The fishing rod feed will now be an extra workout for the keepers with this added weight!

Photo of the Day:

The maintenance team had the strimmer out this morning to get on top of the vegetation growing in the enclosures at the moment. Of course cats seem to enjoy the smell of freshly cut grass as much as us humans do and sure enough as soon as our Jaguar 'Chiquita' came out she started having a good old roll around, enjoying the scent of the aroma:



More Successful Cat Enrichment and Celebrating Being A Keeper

15th April 2010

All the keepers were pretty happy today as we were greeted by some delicious blueberry and white chocolate cheesecake. This was to mark our Primate Keeper Amy starting as a keeper here at the Isle of Wight Zoo a year ago today. Amy intially started in the Zoo Shop as she had a qualification and interest in wildlife photography and she wanted to get closer to the animals to practise this craft more frequently. If one talks to Amy it is clear her passion is with Primates and this can be pinpointed to the first time she was allowed to go and meet the Ring Tailed Lemurs for a 'Lemur Painting' (i'll keep you guessing...) experience. A position became avalible for Amy to join the animal care team and she has been looking after the lemurs, spider monkeys and capuchins since then - quite a broad spectrum of personalities in that group!

Today Amy went in and gave the Ring Tailed Lemurs a special treat as well to mark the occasion and here they are getting their noses stuck into some bread and jam with Amy:

Photo of the Day:

Meanwhile on the cat section we have been giving our cats a workout and keeping them healthy as we try to do each day. Today one of our largest, if not the largest male cat we have, 'Chandru' was treated with the 'fishig rod feed'. Chandru is an ex circus tiger that we were able to give a home to. He was raised with Lions when he was a cub so certainly did not have the most natural upbringing. Interestingly enough, when the Lions start their territorial calls, he often joins in. He must think he has some lion in him! Chandru is 15 years old and it's great to see that he is still so athetic and ready to put a good effort into catching his food, a real good work out for him today!



Jaguar Enclosure progress and volunteering at the zoo

14th April 2011

Work continues on the new Jaguar enclosure and the frame work for the roof has gone up and we hope to get the roof on shortly. Stay tuned for updates.

If you have a skill you can offer, why not see if we have a position as a volunteer at the zoo. Lend a helping hand whilst being in a very rewarding environment. Here we can see Diamond and Aysha inspecting the fence for any missed spots in the new coat of paint.

10th April 2011

Photo of the Day:

One of the highlights on the schedule of the cat teams day is the big cat feeds for the public at 2.30pm and 4.30pm. We enjoy thinking up new creative ideas to stimulate and enrich our cats and here we can see the benefits of our 'feed from the sky' method in terms of the exercise and giving the cats a decent workout and simulating having to catch food. Casper being only 4 years old, enjoys the exercise and showing off his youthful agility and of course developed musculature. Make sure to catch the big cat feeds in the afternoon and test your own reaction times and see if you can catch a photo of the action!

9th April 2011

Photo of the Day:

Our Brown Capuchin boys got to chill out in the Sun today with some apple juice ice lollies made up by our Primate staff. The boys half enjoy licking the refreshing treats and half enjoying bashing them against a hard surface to see them smash. Capuchins are highly intelligent and their intelligence is comparable to that of a three year old human. Highly expressive in their facial features, personally I could watch them think and interact with the world around them for a very long time. You can come and watch them catch grapes and have afternoon snacks everyday at the Capuchin talk at 3.30.

The good weather continues...

8th April 2011

Photo of the Day:

We have had some glorious days as of late and it looks like the good weather is going to be continuing throughout the weekend. Of course we have been deploying our resident weather man to keep an eye on things. Here he is today on his perch ready to ward off any clouds should he see them appearing on the horizon - he's got a good view from up there :

New Jaguar enclosure progress and a quick trip to the beach for the benefit of our animals...

Currenty we are in the swing of trying to complete our new jaguar enclosure so we can have both of our Jaguars back on display again. The past few days the scaffolding has gone up to authenticate the buidling site feel and our Jaguars Tequilla and Chicata have been monitoring progress from their enclosure next door. The enclosure will be more stimulating for the jaguars of course as well as more asthetically pleasing. There may even be a special litte touch that we are adding to the enclosue, though still unconfirmed, but watch this space!

Progress on the jaguar enclosure taken today:

Meanwhile a couple of the keepers had to endure the laborious task of heading down to the beach (and today of all days...) for the benefit of the animals. One of the personalities at the zoo that is loved by all the keepers is that of Winston the pig at the Zoo Little Farm. Supposedly a 'Micro-Pig', as belielved when he first arrived, he isnt far off being as big as some of our smaller tigers now. Today we made a 'rummaging box' for him to, well, rummage through. A good material to have to rummage through to find his treats are soft stones, so here one of our Primate keepers, Steph, hits the beach in search of some of these materials. The Isle of Wight Zoo is situated a stone's throw away (to stay in keeping with the theme of this paragraph) from the lovely sandy beaches of Sandown and Yaverland, so you can hit the beach and the zoo without having to go very far at all!

'Sitting in the morning Sun' and keepers in awe of leaping abilities of one of our tigers!

4th April 2011

As reported in the last blog entry, the cat keepers have been seeing how the cats react differently to the large fishing rod that has been lowering down chunks of meat for them at the big cat feeds. We had so far tested it on Casper the White Lion, our youngest cat, who after initally being unsure of this strange new method of eating and playing, had become a keen participant in jumping up and working for his food, often grabbing the food before the keeper intended as he jumped higher than we thought he would. Then there was Rajiv, who seems to enjoy playing the waiting game, not wanting to put the effort in to jump most of the time, instead waiting for it to come down to his chomping jaws.

Today we fed Rajiv and Lola with the fishing rod. As usual we had a quite tame session with Rajiv. We then moved over to feed Lola and I managd to get the fishing rod over the enclosure fence, and before I could start lowering it down for her we were stunned by what must have been a 2 - 2 and a half metre standing vertical leap!! There was no run up or prop used, she just looked up and jumped straight up to grab the food. I was not expecting that at all and Lola rewarded me on the other end of the fishing rod with a nice adrenaline rush as she caught me completely off guard! Lola is a 15 year old cat and we take our hats off to here at her athetic ability at this age. She certainly has a lot of respect from the keepers and the from the watching public.

We hope to continue to enrich and exercise all our cats with this method, but as keepers we certainly look forward to feeding Lola like this again - what a beautiful tigress she is!

Photo of the Day -

'Sitting in the Morning Sun, I'll be sitting when the evening comes...'

I'm sure the great Otis Redding would have got one very well hanging out with a group of lemurs. Lemurs are known as Sun worshipers as most species can often be seen in the very amsuing pose of what is literally sun bathing and something us humans can certainly relate to. Lemurs have 'low metabolic basal rates' which helps them conserve energy during the dry season in Madagascar and can lower their metabolic rate to 20% below what would be expected for mammals of the same body mass. This trait is the reason for many of the lemurs behaviours to conserve loosing energy to heat loss such as group huddling and of course sun bathing.

Here is one of the iconic Ring Tailed Lemurs we have enjoying a sun bathing session this morning. He was perched in the tree tops with the 2 other members of her group doing the exact same thing:

Happy Mother's Day

3rd April 2011

A Happy Mother's Day to all. If any of our primates could understand the concept of a public holiday such as this it would be our spider monkeys, which are ranked the third most intelligent non human primate species only surpassed by orang-utan's and chimpanzees. Being highly intelligent, spider monkey's development time can be up to 8 years and mother's are very attentive and caring towards their young. Baby spider monkeys are often found clinging to onto their mothers back when moving through the tree tops up until they are one year old. Our baby Black Headed Spider Monkey (Ateles fusciceps) 'Millie' is two years old now but still very much enjoys a hug with mother 'Ellie':

Photo taken 01.04.2011

Cat Enrichment

Meanwhile on the cat team we have been seeing the reactions of our different cats to the sight of their food being lowered down from the sky. We have a large fishing rod that we can feed our cats with by lowering down a piece of meat up and over the enclosure fences and since bringing it out recently to utilize as another form of enrichment, we have had a few confused looks from our cats as to what is going on. We have been first testing the novel feeding method with our young lion Casper and after initially looking at the hovering meat in wonder and amazment, he now thoroughly enjoys the added stimulus of having to catch his moving food. Today we tested the method with one of our tigers 'Rajiv'. It was great to see his train of thought towards this and for the first go at it today he decided he didnt want to exert too much energy and stand up to get his food instead just to chomp his jaws together as the food went past his mouth. He got his reward with this more relaxed style today but once he gets used to the idea of his meat decending to the skies, we hope to see him getting more excited and keen to 'catch' the food like Casper now has. It's great exercise for the cats and an oppourtunity for them to use their cat like reaction skills and agility.

Photo of the Day:

Our lioness 'Nahla' is one of our most lovable cats and the affection and sweetness often seen in her eyes means it is easy to interpret her as an over-grown family house cat. Here she demonstrates her other side as she lets a cardboard box that contains a few meat trinkets inside know that it's time on this planet is about to come to an end in a hurry as the claws and teeth come out to begin the shredding process...

Improvements for Chandru + 'Wide Eyes and Big Whiskers'

2nd April 2011

One of our current visions at the Isle of Wight zoo is to improve sleeping quarter accomodation for our big cats. Currently we are working on preparing an enclosure for one of our tigers 'Chandru' that grant access for him to use the new night rooms and shortly he will be moved across the zoo to an enclosure close to an ex love interest of his, 'Lola', which will give him additional happiness.

Today the welder arrived to start finishing off his future night room in the new night room block, installing the neccessary metal framework. With the enclosure empty in the meantime, we have taken the oppourtuniy to prepare 'sun bathing platforms' and other improvements to give Chandru places to perch himself and look charismatic when the Sun is shining. Here is our maintenence team yesterday working on one of the platforms:

Photo of the Day:

'Wide Eyes and Big Whiskers'

A portrait of 'Lola' one of our more fiesty and firey tigress's. As mentioned above she was once introduced to Chandru and it is hoped when Chandru is moved, the close proximity of the two tigers to each other will be beneificial to both tigers. Here she is in a portrait from today showing off her wonderfully large whiskers and firery eyes:

Departing Ducks and a Family Portrait

1st April 2011
Today we caught up 3 of our 4 Meller's Ducks (Anas melleri) for transport to a new facility in Norfolk. This endangered species from Madagascar has benefited tremendously from 'ex-situ' breeding in captivity at zoological institutions participating in the species breeding program. The Isle of Wight Zoo received a breeding pair of Meller's Ducks of which successfully bred and produced one male and one female ducklings. To maximise genetic diversity, our female, who will stay at the Isle of Wight Zoo, has now been selected to be paired with another male for future breeding. The previous male and the two offspring will be sent off to a non-breeding facility in the meantime until the studbook asseses and allocates how best to use these individuals in the breeding program.

After a brief entertaining period of the ducks testing the keepers reaction times and catching skills the three ducks were caught and they are now ready for transport tomorrow. Pictured below is one of our primate keepers Amy with the final duck to be caught, the original breeding male we had (minus a few tail feathers from the catching process!)

Primate keeper Amy and Animal Presenter, Faye, hold up the 3 ducks ready for transport tomorrow

The day started out cloudy and dull but the afternoon brought some wonderful sunshine with which I managed to grab a great family portrait of our Black Spider Monkeys (Ateles fusciceps). From left: Mother Ellie; Daughter Millie and Father Tino.