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: