Happy 2014

Happy New Year! It's been a while since my last post, but I've not forgotten about this blog, 2014 has been off to a very busy start. My personal life has been a little hectic recently, with Christmas and the holidays, and I'm also moving house soon. All around work (actual bring in the money type work), volunteering and trying to get college work done. I'll upload a more interesting blog post hopefully later today! For now though, here's some pics of the cubs I've been privileged to watch growing up. 

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

Quick cat count

Looking back over some old posts I realised the counts were rather outdated with all the moves and transfers, so I thought I'd quickly update the list to our current numbers. 

African lions - both tawny and white (Panthera leo) : 12

Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) : 5

Amur/Siberian tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) : 3

Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) : 2 (1 white)

Hybrid tiger : 2

Snow leopard (Uncia uncia) : 2
Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) : 5
North Chinese leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis) : 2
African leopard - black (Panthera pardus) : 1
Clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) : 2
Serval (Leptailurus serval) : 5
Rusty-spotted cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus) : 1

Pumas/cougar/mountain lions (Puma concolor) : 4

Pallas cat/manul (Otocolobus manul) : 2
Jaguar (Panthera onca) : 2
Fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) : 2
Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) : 1
Jungle cat (Felis chaus): 1
Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatas) : 2

Total of 56 cats across 16 species (edited 13/11/13)

Changes include: 

• birth of 6 lion cubs (2 litters - 4 + 2) 
  
• transfer of 1 male Sumatran tiger to Thrigby Hall (Norfolk)
• Transfer of 2 female Amur tiger cubs to Paradise Wildlife Park
• 1 female Bengal tiger PTS 
• Arrival of 1 male snow leopard 
• Transfer of 1 male Amur leopard to Rutland
• Transfer of 1 male Pallas cat to Cotswold
• Arrival of 1 female white tiger (edited)
• Arrival of 1 female hybrid tiger (edited) 

Jack the Jungle Cat

Jack is our Jungle Cat (Felis chaus), possibly the only one currently in the UK. I'm not sure why zoos in this country are not particularly taken by these cats because Jack is a brilliant character. He's just over a year old, and hasn't been with us for a huge amount of time. It took him quite a long while to get used to us, and spent a lot of time inside - on our open days he was nowhere to be seen even though it was lovely weather. Now that he's found his feet he is fast becoming a favourite on photo days, and I'm sure you can see why. 

Jungle cats are found across Asia to the Nile Valley in Egypt and considered common in their range, particularly in India. However, their population is in decline in some areas due to the usual habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict. They are known as "swamp lynx," a name which apparently originates due to their little black tufts on the end of their ears, incidentally they are not members of the lynx family.

They have been found in Egyptian tombs mummified, suggesting that perhaps once they were domesticated (though I'm not sure Jack is a good example of how "friendly" they may be) or because they are adept at hunting rodents they were good ratters and therefore revered. The Egyptians were well known for their worship of cats regardless.

They eat pretty much anything they can get their paws on, from rodents to birds and even fish. They are very good at catching birds in flight and are good swimmers. They have been recorded swimming up to 1.5km.

One of the great things about Jungle cats is their vocalisations - something I am yet to hear anything of from Jack. Their meow is much lower in pitch than a domestic cat, and they make a sharp almost bark like vocalisation.

Hopefully there will be lot more of Jack to come, especially as he comes out of his shell. I've certainly seen a lot more of him than in previous months, and it's possible that he will be the subject of my upcoming behavioural study for my course... watch this space.

Puma enrichment

We had a lot of success using a large hemp ball in one of our Sumatran tiger enclosures - Toba went a little crazy with it... so we decided to attempt it with one of out younger pumas who is known to play with footballs and is generally very playful. So one of the keepers managed to manoeuvre it from one side of the site to Yazhi's enclosure and attacked it with a range of spices and herbs and left it for her to discover. 

 

  

The result was less than impressive as you can see by the video, although there was some Flehmen response which was probably as exciting as it got...

   

The Flehmen response in brief is when a cat (although it occurs in other animals also) lifts its upper lip and draws air in over the Jacobson's gland on the roof of the mouth. This is to establish the reproductive status of an animal in addition to other chemical cues.

Clouded leopards (and Cotswold)

I recently visited the Cotswold's Wildlife Park. It was a planned visit which formed part of the DMZAA residential study week. It was the first time I had been there, and was excited to go as our Pallas Cat, Khan, had moved there a few months back. Sadly we seemed to miss the Pallas Cats, I think they were tucked away in a corner somewhere and I didn't have time to properly search for them. A good reason to return!

We were taken around the site by one of the keepers, and got a few behind the scenes tours, which is always exciting. They have an amazing lemur walk through, the highlight of which is the crowned sifaka. A species I have long wanted to see and eagerly waited to see him move - they're the lemurs that are on every Madagascar documentary, the ones that jump everywhere on their back feet (they evolved for an arboreal existence so their legs are too long to walk properly).

Mandalay (female)

One thing that I was quite surprised by was the keepers and other members of my college group (all keepers/zoo volunteers) opinion/experiences of clouded leopards. I must point out that the only experience I really have of clouded leopards is the pair at WHF. Everyone I spoke to said that clouded leopards were nocturnal, shy, and they never really saw them (in their own collections and others). I think our two cloudies haven't read the rule book. 

The two clouded leopards at WHF are two very popular cats. Ben and Mandalay were originally a breeding pair that came from the Aspinall Foundation (Howletts/Port Lympne) in Kent. They came to us for their retirement and are helping us to learn all about keeping cloudies with the eventual hope that we will breed them ourselves. Ben has now had a vasectomy, so they can no longer breed (he was a little too good at his job so has lots of progeny out there). 

Ben (male)

What makes them extra special, or at least Ben extra special is how much he "likes" people. Mandalay is a little more shy and doesn't often come down from her "safe branch." Ben is particularly chatty, and he chuffles. The wonderful noise most often associated with tigers.  When you take tours around and get to the clouded leopards guests are usually amazed by them. Ben often trots up to the window and puts his paws on the ledge to peer out and say hello. They make a noise I can only liken to a ducks quack, and he'll often answer back if you attempt to call him using "cloudy speak."  After a long time of failed attempts, I finally managed to get the chuffle on film yesterday. After a little coaxing from a fellow volunteer he came close enough and was loud enough for the mic to pick it up. 

I apologise for the angle and the excited squeak when he does chuffle... it's just the cutest noise!