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!!