Madagascar Adventure - Day One

Hello

My name is Tracy Dove and I am the Education and Conservation Officer at the Isle of Wight Zoo. In November I was lucky enough to visit Madagascar on behalf of the zoo.

I had hoped to write a live blog about my trip but I had no access to the internet while I was away. However I kept a diary of my adventures so although I am now actually back in the UK please follow my ‘deferred’ blog and take a virtual journey with me to the wonderful island of Madagascar.

 The Isle of Wight Zoo has been a member of the Madagascar Fauna and Flora Group (MFG) for many years. Our membership means that even though we are a small zoo with limited resources and expertise we can make a tangible contribution to protecting the precious species on Madagascar. The MFG was formed 25 years ago and to celebrate this milestone the annual meeting, which usually alternates between a European and a US venue, was recently held in Madagascar. I was lucky enough to be able to attend the meeting and to see first-hand all the amazing conservation work taking place.

 

DAY ONE – The Adventure begins

I slept very fitfully last night, listening to the gale howling outside my window and hoping against hope that the ferries would be running so I could get off the Isle of Wight to start my long journey.

There are no direct flights to Madagascar from the UK so on this first day I was heading for Paris.
Because I was travelling alone and there would be no-one to help me carry my luggage I was trying to travel light. I had packed the minimum of spare clothing but my rucksack was still crammed full with items necessary for a three week stay in a developing country with a tropical climate – mosquito net, sleeping bag, water purifying tablets, torch, Malagasy phrasebook and of course a packet of good English teabags!
Thankfully my ferry did set off on time and the subsequent coach journey from Southampton to Heathrow was swift and comfortable. I must confess though that as my flight took off for Paris I did have a tight knot of nerves in my stomach at the thought of travelling tomorrow to Madagascar on my own. My guide book was full of advice about how to stay safe, what to do if robbed, tips for dealing with assertive porters and the importance of never going out after dark – all very helpful but probably not the best in-flight reading material for someone already full of trepidation!
It was dark as the plane descended towards Charles de Gaulle airport and I glanced out of the window. The lights of Paris stretched as far as the eye could see and in the distance I could see both the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral.  I had booked a room at an airport hotel and once I had collected my bag (always such a relief when it appears on the carousel!) I caught the futuristic monorail and was soon checking in. After a simple meal it was time for an early night.
Tomorrow I go to Madagascar!

Georgie and friends

The last couple of weeks the zoo has been lovely and busy and my talks have been well attended with lots of eager beaver families of all ages, it has been wonderful!

I took my husband Paddy and 10 year old daughter Rosie to work with me today.  They were going to open our adoption hut and sell lots of lovely new 'Adoption Squad' bags with tigers and meerkat toys inside.  At 10 pounds they are a really nice present or souvenir of the zoo and help us to care for our animals at the same time!
 I was doing my first job of the day and cleaning the windows of the cat enclosures when I heard our tiger Diamond chuffing profusely at someone, I turned around to see... Rosie standing at the barrier closest to him 'chuffing' away and they were talking to each other: WONDERFUL!

Today I'm going to continue my introduction of the zoo team and hand over to Mary and Amy, our two cat keepers.  I will gradually introduce all our team to you through the blog over the next few weeks.

Mary says:

“I always wanted to work with animals since I can remember. I was never one of those kids that changed their minds every two minutes! I wanted to be a vet. I planned to work in Africa with the elephants and lions ;). Reality struck when I was about 16... Lol. Decided to go to Sparsholt College when I finished school, studying animal management. I lived there during my first year, studied hard and finished with all distinctions (I'm so brainy!). Then during the summer I got a job in the zoo cafe. I must have only been in the cafe 3 weeks when I got offered a job in the animal team. I was waaaaay too excited. My very first keeper day didn't start too well. My alarm didn't go off in the morning and I had a manager on the phone telling me "you're an hour late"!! I was mortified, got to work and just cried. I started working in zoo@home over summer. Back then it had to be manned all day so it was very lonely and I didn’t really like it. I ended up talking to rabbits all day. Then over the summer I started working with the primates with Amy and loved it. I then got made redundant!!! Boohoo. Luckily for me one of the other keepers went on maternity leave and they invited me back! I then only worked weekends whilst I was at college, becoming full time once I finished. I was asked to look after the cats about 2 years ago now :o.  The worst bit about the job - chopping up rabbits (they stink). The best bit about my job is the big cat training sessions.”

 

Amy says:

“I originally wanted to be a wildlife photographer and one summer was very lucky to be given a job in the zoo shop. I jumped at the opportunity as every day after work I was able to walk around the zoo and practice my photography. As I did this I became close friends with the keepers and more interested in the work they were doing with the animals. One day they allowed me to go in with the ringtail lemurs and from that moment I was hooked and knew instantly that I wanted to be a keeper. When my shop contract ended I volunteered on the keeper team and when a job became available I put my name down and was lucky enough to be offered the position.

The best part of my job is being able to build relationships with amazing animals.  They are all individuals and have such different characteristics and you love all of them for different reasons. Also knowing that an animal you work with has complete trust in you is the most satisfying feeling I have ever known.

The worst part of my job is without a doubt when the butchery room drain gets blocked. You need a strong stomach to clean that thing out!!!” 

Busman's Holiday?

Last Monday my colleague Alex kindly stood in for my Monday as I was down in the West Country for a family wedding, thanks Alex!  As ever though all things ' zoo' are never far from my mind  and on the way home we realised that we would be passing Dartmoor Zoo, home of the movie 'We bought a Zoo' based on the book written by its owner Benjamin Mee. 

I've always been fascinated by Benjamin's story. As you all probably know by now, our zoo is also privately owned - by the Corney family.  I've seen firsthand that it takes a lot of personal self sacrifice, dedication and hard work bringing both highs and lows when the owner of a private zoo.

Having read Benjamin's book, I often mention Dartmoor Zoo in my lion talk, as our beautiful lioness Nahla originally came from there, being rejected by her mum and hand raised by the keepers then coming to the island at 9 months old. 

I was keen to head to the lions enclosure as soon as we got there.  Their enclosure was a great size with long grasses and a few mature trees together with a battered Land Rover, much like our lions’ beloved sunbathing spot on the roof of theirs!

The keepers were sprinkling scent enrichment around and hiding meat in the trees.

We could see a very excited lioness 'Josie' that was keen to get back into her outside space and find all the goodies that were hidden.  You could have knocked me down with a feather when she was released from her bedroom. She was the spitting image of our Nahla!! After a bit of investigation it turns out that Josie is actually Nahla’s sister!  Her personality seemed similar too. She displayed bundles of energy and mischief and was bounding up trees to look for the hidden meat, just as I'm sure Nahla would!

Dartmoor Zoo had special entrance rates for locals to encourage them to visit the zoo when they could.  Small zoos really need the support of local residents not only in the high summer season but especially in the quieter winter months when we all struggle to pay the bills.  The Isle of Wight Zoo has a similar policy for locals. Bring something along with your address on it and we can reduce your entry fee. All visitors to the IOW Zoo benefit from free parking for zoo visitors and it’s just a pound to come back within a week. Why not combine an extra zoo visit with an afternoon playing on the golden sands of Sandown beach?! I don't know of many zoos on a beach!

 

I look forward to seeing all you lovely people that live on the island soon!

 

Thanks for reading this, I'm here every Monday!

Introducing Georgie

There are a lot of people that work behind the scenes at the Isle of Wight Zoo who have big personalities, hearts and commitment to the zoo, to its animals and to our conservation projects in Madagascar and India.  If you've been reading my blog for some time now but didn't know me before, you will by now have gathered that I LOVE my job at the zoo and am sitting here typing this with a big smile on my face as today I am going in again to tour guide for a school that has asked for me for the third year running. The children literally make my week when I see them!  The rest of the week I am an estate agent for my sins, working in Cowes which I also love but in an entirely different way!! My vendors call me the 'Lion Tamer'!! I am wife to Paddy - we recently celebrated our 20 year wedding anniversary, and we have 3 lovely children, Stuart (who also works at the zoo) 16, Harrison 13 and Rosie who's 10.  After working here for 5 years, this being my 6th season they now know as much as I do about the animals at the zoo!! For the last three years I have run the Great South Run in aid of our tiger conservation project. I have yet to run it in our tiger suit but never say never!!  Many people ask me who my favourite animal in the zoo is, and I tell them we aren't allowed favourites, but if I am squeezed for an answer, I have to say, Chiquita the jaguar, Aysha the tigress, Nahla the lioness, Millie the spider monkey and Andro the red ruff lemur, love them all!!! The best part of my job is first thing in the morning when I'm cleaning the cat windows and the cats come and rub up against the fence to say hello. Also when families come at the beginning of the day expecting to stay for an hour, but instead end up following me on my talks all day, leaving at closing time with their hearts and heads full of love and things they didn't know about the animals!!  I share my blog on Facebook and ask my friends to 'like and share' to spread the word, it would be fantastic if you are reading this if you would do the same!!  I will be telling you about more of our team over the next coming weeks, thanks for reading this, I'm here every Monday!!

To breed or not to breed....

Lots of people were in today that asked great questions about our animals and how we look after them.  Many people ask whether our cats will have cubs, especially Nahla and Charlie Brown our African lions.  The answer I give is no: most of our cats are elderly, too old to breed and none are eligible to be studbook registered for conservation breeding purposes. We therefore do not allow our cats to breed nowadays, although many tiger cubs were born here back in the eighties. The role of our big cats now is as ambassadors for their species, helping us to get visitors interested in the conservation of their wild cousins.

Breeding programmes are managed by experts, usually from the zoo community, who are in charge of the 'stud book' for a particular species of animal. The captive breeding population for each relevant species is managed as one population, even though the animals may be distributed in zoos across Europe or even the world. Breeding programme managers have all the history of each individual animal then recommend which animals are most suitable to breed together for maximum genetic diversity. Arrangements can then be made for travel between zoos etc.  All very interesting stuff!!

We do have animals on breeding programmes here at the zoo, mainly Malagasy species including mongoose lemurs Soa (the female) and McLovin (the male), who was originally caught illegally in Madagascar and sold as a pet. Many years later he was given to a European zoo and put into the captive breeding programme because his genes are fabulous!! No babies yet but we live in hope!  Thank you for reading my blog, I'm here every Monday!!

 

 

Monkeying around with Georgie

Most people visit our zoo to see our big cats, especially our beautiful white tigress Zena.  However, once across the threshold they always fall in love with some of our monkeys and lemurs.

Today I'd like to share some of the work that we do with our brown capuchin monkeys as part of their care package, which in zoo world is known as husbandry.

We have a small troop of three males at the Isle of Wight Zoo - Harley (the largest and alpha male), Timmy and Bailey.  Being the alpha male is infinitely tougher in the wild. They have to protect their family, but mating rights over the females together with first dibs on food are the perks that go with the job!

Craig has been working with Harley and has trained him to present his left or right hand, sit, lick finger (Craig's), touch a target, hold Craig's finger and ring a bell. This is great enrichment for Harley but also helps Craig to get closer to Harley and identify any possible ailments. This training will get even better when Harley will do all these things in a large Perspex box so that we can get an even closer look at him.

A local secondary school had some students that tried some more enrichment ideas with the little furry primates. One which was very different was an aural one.  A student had made up a tape of different types of music, which he played to the capuchins via a tape player outside the enclosure. The plan was to observe the boys to see how they'd react.  Guess what their favourite music was?  Hard rock!!

Hope you enjoy this photo of Harley with his enrichment box which was filled with goodies which he had to rummage around for! 

I'm here every Monday!

Georgie's Blog - What would you do with a million?

When I walked into the office to get ready for my talks today it was a hub of excitement, with zookeepers and education department having a quick 'tea break'- they had already been here since the crack of dawn looking after the animals.

I had happened to walk into a 'If I won a million pounds I would....' discussion.  You know the type; we've all had them and of course at the zoo after we've done all the 'normal' things like looking after our families, buying a house, car boat etc.... we all fantasize about having our own zoo collection with some of our favourite animals.  So, it got me thinking of an idea for this week's 'Georgie Blog'.  At the beginning of the lemur talk (12 noon every day)  us Zoo Hosts like to explain why our zoo has its unique and eclectic collection mix of mainly big cats and lemurs (amongst other interesting animals too numerous to mention here!)

The Isle of Wight Zoo has been owned by the Corney family since 1976, when Jack and Judith Corney brought the zoo and moved to the island with their young family.  Jack added the first of what was to be many big cats to the zoo in the early 80's, offering permanent homes to many unwanted cats that were from circuses and zoo surplus lists to name a few.  At one time there were 22 tigers residing at the zoo!  In the 90's his wife Judith went to Madagascar to find out more about the plight of the native lemur species, and on her return was determined to help the endangered animals and so added several species of lemurs to the family collection.  So in short, the privately owned Isle of Wight Zoo has a history spanning in excess of 35 years, with the family caring for animals in part of the collection which not only have amazing conservation and educational value, but also happen to be some of their most favourite animals on the planet.

 

So, if we collectively 'won the lottery' some time soon, I asked the team to choose two of their most revered creatures to be part of our zoo. These are some of the interesting choices they said....

 

African bullfrog,  domestic dog,  drill,  Waldrapp Ibis,  aye aye,  Asian short-clawed otter,  orangutan,  humming bird,  lar gibbon,  clouded leopard,  bonobo, southern ground hornbill,  leaf insect,  binturong,  grizzly bear,  black-tip reef shark,  miniature horse, sloth,  giraffe, cheetah and, of course, tiger, lion, jaguar and leopard.

 

What an amazing zoo that would be!!  Think we'll need a few million for that one!

 

Thanks for reading this,  I'm here every Monday!

 

Georgie's Blog for 3rd June

Sunny day again at the Isle of Wight Zoo.

 

Lots of sunbathing big cats and primates at the zoo today, which is nice to see after weeks of grotty weather. This is actually a natural behaviour for them, and big cats conserve their energy by 'chilling out' for up to 20 hours out of a 24 hour period whether in the wild or in a human care environment (you may well see similar behaviour in your own domestic cats!). 

One of the saddest things for us to hear or see at the zoo is when visitors wanting to see more 'action' from the cats on a hot day decide that the best way to do this is by throwing stones at the cats or poking them through the fence with a stick or umbrella.  I know that most of you reading this will be surprised and appalled upon learning this. The enclosures are the animals’ homes, and they have the right to feel safe in their own territory. We trust our visitors to treat the animals with respect and hope that people enjoy looking at the animals and watching their movements and behaviour. The zoo team take very seriously our responsibility for the physical and mental well-being of the animals in our care.  So today we were grateful when another island couple with their young baby stopped a group of people from throwing stones at Casper our white lion, who was snoozing peacefully on his rock. 

We welcome everyone through our doors and are grateful for our public support, just please remember that this zoo is our animals’ home and they deserve to feel safe and not disturbed from a forty winks nap!!'

Thanks for reading this, I'm here every Monday!! 

I hope you enjoy my photo of Diamond the golden tabby tiger, very unusual boy, he is LOVELY!!

Georgie's Bank Holiday

What a bank holiday treat today was!! Beautiful weather that all our animals relished with delight and a packed out car park which meant lots of lovely smiley visitors!!

One of the most scary parts of my job are when friends or family come to the zoo to see the animals and of course to see me in action!  Today some lovely friends were visiting from the 'big island', and would you believe my boss (of my other job) with his family came too.  No pressure then!!

How satisfying it is when they see another side of me. Don't get me wrong -  everyone knows that I adore my job at the zoo, but they don't really see why until they are standing in front of me,  excitedly relaying stories about the tigers, lions and many animals that we look after!

It was a wonderful day, topped off with the lovely Indian tigress Lola and her public feed at 4.30pm, where she was given a paddling pool to play with. As you can see from my photo, it was quickly punctured by her 3 inch canine teeth while she dragged it around her enclosure with glee!!

We always welcome 'gifts' for our animals from the public, we are on a tight budget, rebuilding enclosures as we can and money is always tight.  So if we have any generous supporters out there that may have hessian sacks, natural rope, plastic paddling pools(!) branches, wooden pallets, beer barrels, big tyres, half bottles of old perfume etc etc knocking around a shed or garage not being used...... Send it or bring it to us, where we will make use of it as a toy, enrichment or useful bit of furniture for an animal enclosure!!

It would be lovely to see you at the zoo this summer, I'm here every Monday!!

Georgie's Blog

What a gorgeous day to be working outside at the zoo today!

We were lovely and busy with a mixture of families, couples and groups of friends visiting today, many of whom were interested in our work and asked lots of questions.

The only small problem that I had was that our male lion Charlie Brown had decided to have a lay in. No amount of cajoling could get him up for the 11am Lion Talk, and there he stayed until 3pm then roared all afternoon to announce his readiness for the day!

His friend Nahla however came over for a brush, something we try to do for all of our cats that like a bit of a tickle, we can't put our fingers through the mesh for obvious reasons but can brush them through the wire with a washing up brush!

The black lemur, Antaly was hopping about her branches with her gorgeous little 4 week old baby clinging on to her tummy a lot today, to the pleasure of our smaller visitors.

One of the two conservation projects that the zoo supports is the Madagascar Fauna Group (MFG) - a great organisation and one of the few still working in Madagascar at the moment due to the dangerous political unrest. All 100 odd species of lemur in Madagascar are threatened, mainly due to loss of forest habitat.

Madagascar is a poor country and the locals need to farm the land in order to eat. The MFG , amongst other things, are teaching locals sustainable farming methods such as planting crops in between the trees.  We are very proud to be supporting them.

Come and visit us if you are here on holiday or if you live here. We would love to see you and you'll be helping tigers and lemurs to survive in their natural habitats too! I'm here every Monday!!

 

Georgie's Day

I used to think that conservationists were 'hippy type treehuggers'- meant in the nicest way of course.  BUT that is not true, anyone can be a conservationist from babies to great grandparents that visit our zoo for the day.  Hopefully our enthusiam and passion for what we do is infectious and makes for a magical and interesting day for our visitors too.

We send some of the money you pay to come in to see our cats, primates and smaller animals out to fund two projects very dear to our hearts and I am going to tell you about one of those today.

In Kudremukh, located in the Western Ghats of India, we fund (amongst many things) - a fabulous educational programme for the local people to help them safely live alongside one of the largest big cat predators in the world... the Indian tiger.

In the past this project has helped stop 30 tigers from being poached in one year.  Who would have thought that a tiny zoo on the Isle of Wight could be responsible for preventing horrible deaths to as much as 1% of the WORLD wild tiger population?!

So there you are, not only can you laugh at the monkeys’ antics, ‘oooh’ at the lions and jaguars and stroke a wallaby

, but when you walk across our threshold you are unwittingly becoming conservationists!

Look at you smiling!  You should be, you are helping us save TIGERS!!!

If you have visited the zoo and want to help us a little bit more please post comments and your photos on social media sites - Facebook, Twitter, Trip Advisor: more visitors means more money to send out to our projects, and better enriched lives for our cats in our zoo!!

Thank you for reading this,  I'm here every Monday!!

Tour guide Georgie's day

 

Today was a quiet day in the zoo but my talks were still well attended, which is heart warming.  Visitors were in the main new to what we do but it was lovely to chat to a couple that make sure they visit at least twice a year.  They said there was always something new to see when they come and they loved our new meerkats.  I spent some time today trying to teach everyone how to 'talk tiger'.  Tigers don't purr: of all the big cats, only cheetahs are purring cats and they don't have the ability to roar as the others do.  To show pleasure and greet one another tigers blow air down their noses to make a 'chuffing' sound, officially called 'prusten'.  
 More news next Monday, thanks for reading!! Georgie

Tour Guide Georgie shares her day

I had a great day at the zoo today.  I had some lovely visitors come along on my talks. One family travelled from Guildford especially to come to our zoo for the day, which was lovely. I was asked some very delicate and sensitive questions, especially regarding the size of the enclosures compared to the space that these magnificent predators would have as a territory in the wild.  As I said then, tigers are being squeezed into smaller and smaller territories by man and they are hunted for ancient oriental medicines, often before they have matured.  Our tigers have been born into human care environments: they don't know what it feels like to be hunted or hungry. If they are unwell we call our vet, Matt, in to care for them straightaway.  They are encouraged to express natural behaviour and often show their feelings of enthusiasm and excitement.  They are so loved by all that work here and their adoring public.  Our cats treat their spaces just like their territories, marking and spraying, and patrolling the perimeters.  So I guess that one of the most important things that I've learned whilst working at the zoo is that our cats are the ambassadors of their species. We are privileged to work alongside them - predators in smaller safer 'territories'.  Here is a photo of the lovely 'Lola' (an ex-circus tiger) showing her lovely physique stretching up to get her meat at the Big Cat Feed today at 4.30pm.  Thanks for reading this.... I'm here every Monday!!