Lola's 14th Birthday; Halloween and Georgie's run for tigers

As always, there a lot to update about in the few weeks since the last update.

Lola's 14th

It was tigress Lola's 14th Birthday on the 27th of October this year. She was given a few extra treats, including a few presents as seen in the photo, such as some Rainbow Trout. Though expensive, Lola gave a reponse of 'if it aint broke dont fix it' and hesitantly tucked into this unusual food item, though looking like she would have prefered a big slab of her favourite meat. She enjoyed the attention she got from the zoo visitors that day as they were all there to admire her.
Still looking very youthful, firey and athletic, 14 is a relatively old age for a tiger, a wild one at least. In captivity, we would like to see Lola live a very healthy life with us and possibly reach 20 or so.
We did also take a moment to remember her sibling, of whom it would have also been a birthday for, Sultan who we lost earlier in the year, as he too was a fine cat and won't be forgotten.

Halloween



Of course it was Halloween at the end of the month and I'm glad to say the staff at the Isle of Wight Zoo were very forthcoming in setting up all sorts of halloween treats and activities for the animals and around the zoo, really getting into the spirit of it. Most of the animals had at least to step up to the challenge to get their food out of a pumpkin and other had a few other ideas thrown their way.

Here's Chiquita looking especially scary whilst defending her treat filled pumpkin:

This pumpkin has to be commended for having survived in such good shape, unlike the rest of it's companions who entered the cat enclosures, and is seen her posed with twins Diamond and Aysha.

Of course it was not just the cats who recieved halloween goodies, the primates did as well as the small mammals such as our colony of Degus, who enjoy nibbling on a pumpkin for a short time before must be removed to prevent them from over indulging too much! It was quite comical to watch how many degus could actually squeeze themselves into this pumpkin...

All members of the zoo staff dressed up and were happy to pose with their halloween craftmanship:

It wasn't just pumpkins that were used. Zia was visited by a flying bat which in good will, decided to fill it's insides with meat! This was lowered over the top of her enclosure via the feeding pole and Zia managed to jump up and swat the bat out of the sky for her reward!

Of course the primates wern't scared of anything as long as they knew that food was eventually coming their way!

Diamond tries to use his nose to try and work out if this dyed porridge mix is actually real blood...

Diamond still being fooled by the fake blood, but it does look real!

Georgie's Great South Run



 Tour Guide Georige, successfully ran the 10 mile Great South Run recently in support for the tiger conservation charity we support Global Tiger Patrol! She raised a significant amount of money that can now be put towards our substantial pledge to the charity for this year. Well done Georgie, the wild tigers of India thank you!!