15th October 2011
Again we had fantasic weather here at the zoo today and walking around the zoo doing my keeper chores, I personally felt I would be quite happy joining the cats for a bit of sun-bathing!
Our Bengal Tigress Zia, can often be found on top of her rock soaking up some rays, but it is less familiar to see her sister the white tigress Zena doing the same. That's why it was great to be able to snap this photo of the two sisters both in the same frame of mind, chilling out together in the Sun, with Zena rolling around on her back in contentment in the cave below.
This is especially good to see, as Zena has been on a course of medication for a loss of appetite for the past couple of months and she is back to 100% now. This of course has come to the detriment of the zoo's bank account as she has been treated like a royal princess and is eating 5kg of minced chicken breast a day to satisfy her picky appetite! She absolutely loves in though and it's good to see her back in good health, ready for her eye operation in the coming weeks to attempt to remove her cataract.
A few more shots of Zena enjoying the Sun:
Primate Photo of the Day:
One of the most unique characters on the primate section is certainly the previously very overweight Mongoose Lemur, 'McLovin'. He lived most of his life as a sailor's pet, overindulging in the finer things in life such as grapes and bananas until he came to the Isle of Wight Zoo. He still carries a large amount of excess skin on his belly as a permanent reminder to his previous eating habits!
With the development of one of the lemur enclosures that has meant 'McLovin' and his lady friend 'Soa' have permant access to a very large enclosure, the keepers have been helping the lemurs aleviate their fears of this new wide open space and try and coax the lemurs out into the sunshine with some of their favourite fruits. Today we managed to get McLovin out to enjoy the sunshine on this lovely day, and as he doesnt normally venture this far, usually remaining in the shade, today's photo of the day is McLovin out in the sunlight heading towards a pile of some of his favourite things.
As an interesting note, some of our pairs lemurs that have never seen each other before, are meeting each other for the first time through the mesh thanks to the development of the lemur enclosure and this has resulted in all sorts of amusing interactions. Lemurs are generally harmless, but poor old McLovin here had his tailed yanked on by Mork, one of the lemurs living next to him now, which certainly made him speed up his usual waddle!
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