Monday 4 June 2012

Zuri & Safi - 4th June 2012

So here are my pictures from my last visit, with a bit of a story behind them! My 18th Birthday present was to be a big cat keeper for the day at the zoo, however unfortunately Safina came into season a couple of days ago, which makes it impossible for anyone to get within any contact of her and Zuri, so it had to be called off! So now waiting for them to go back to normal, here are my pictures from my visit.








Even climbing onto the platform would not stop Zuri from following her!






As you can tell Zuri did not leave Safi alone throughout the entire day, and they mated frequently, which could be heard throughout the entire zoo! So Safi unable to get away from his advances, spent most of the time sat next to him or wandering around with him following.




Safi became increasingly agitated throughout the afternoon, and came over to say hello to myself, and was immediately interrupted by Zuri. The lions were also incredibly vocal and very noisy, noises ranging from purrs, to snarls and moans, fantastic to hear.










A very interesting picture above, having just mated Zuri placed himself inbetween Safi and all of the visitors, a territorial response, showing that all the visitors were noticed, and his clear intentions. Definately if anyone had got inbetween the two fences, he would have become incredibly more aggressive than he was already!

Below Safi placed herself the other side of the hatch into the seperate holding, she would not let Zuri through thus allowing her some peace for the time being.







So all in all, a very interesting visit, showing not just me, but all other visitors some fantastic and very powerful lion behaviour. It is clear that being in captivity makes no difference when a female comes into season, and had anyone strayed too close to them at this point a very serious incident could occur. These are definately pictures of lions at their most dangerous.

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