Pallas pumpkins

I've long had a soft spot for Pallas' Cats, so naturally the two we have at WHF are favourites of mine. Wei-Shand and Tula are both amazing little cats, and Wei-Shand in particular is full of character. My enthusiasm for Pallas Cats tends to get passed on to my unsuspecting tours, who have to listen to my excited babble. Who wouldn't fall in love with them though... grumpy looking fluff-balls! Wei-Shand has a habit of following you everywhere. He'll creep up and suddenly be at the door patiently awaiting that moment when you let your guard down... But it's this naughtiness that I love about him.

When I was lucky enough to get my hands on some very cheap pumpkins just after Halloween, and donated the lot to WHF - not before carving a few first. My obvious "target" was the Pallas Cats, so I carved one especially for Wei-Shand - this is the result

The eyes and mouth give a nice little hole to put food through, and that's exactly what we did.  He was served dinner in a pumpkin that day, and he was not amused.It was pretty effective enrichment though, he spent a while plucking up the courage to actually investigate, then grabbed one chick at a time.

Below is a brief video clip of him investigating the pumpkin - there were guests at the enclosure when we fed him, so I wasn't able to get a lot of photos/videos which is a bit annoying 

Arrivals and depatures

Early last week we welcomed back two cats, and another arrived midweek. It's been a busy few weeks! 

Firstly I was really pleased to see Ares, our male jaguar returning. He had gone up to Paradise Wildlife Park (PWP) on a brief "holiday." I say "holiday" because he was filling a gap. This is common practice in the zoo world, when a zoo has an empty enclosure (following death or dispersal to other collections) animals are often brought in temporarily to fill that gap. Ares had gone to fill an empty enclosure whilst Paradise were waiting for their new jaguars (soon to arrive).  

Narnia

With Ares came Narnia, a female white tiger, who had also been at PWP. She had been in with a male white tiger (non-breeding) who sadly was too energetic for the grumpy lady who didn't appreciate his playful nature. She had been with us at WHF before now, but this was the first chance I had to meet her and I am really looking forward to working with her.

Finally came the arrival of Kushka from Marwell. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting her yet, but I did see her a few months back when I visited Marwell. She is another stop-gap tiger who I believe was filling a gap left by a now sadly deceased male. Photos of her will come shortly (I hope!).   

That's not the end for cat moves this month, like I say we've been busy! The end of this week will see our remaining Sumatran tiger cub (two-year old) leaving us to start his new life in France. I will be very sad to see Toba leaving, and will really miss him, he is such a character and has been so much fun to work with. His new zoo are very lucky to have him, and I will definitely be going to see him. 

Toba