Happy Birthday Karla - 29th August 2012

On the 29th August it was Karla's Birthday! She is now nine years old, and Riziki turned nine on the 5th July, so now in their middle ages the pair spend most of their days sleeping in many different positions according to their mood! 

They were sleeping on the platform to get away from the soggy grass as it was a tad wet yesterday, Karla very swiftly then retreated indoors to get away from the rain whereas Riziki soldiered on outside as it really did chuck it down. So much so that I decided to stay under the tree in which I was stood until it calmed down before I went back to the Zoo staff room!

Karla is getting a bit fluffy around the neck and rather porky, this is because she is on the pill at the moment as they are fairly well represented at the moment, so this seems to have a little bit of an effect, and when she gets up close, she is getting a little bit of mane! Riziki though never fails to amaze me, and normally spending so much time up the top with Zuri and Safi whenever he is up at the fence, I am always in awe of how tall he is compared to Zuri.

As I say to the visitors Riziki is more like your typical wild lion, tall, lean, bold face, with a rather mean look sometimes. We are certainly very lucky to have two male lions that are such a great comparison.

I hope you enjoy this rather small set of photos mainly of Karla, she was doing a bit of posing I have to admit!

Zuri & Safi - 29th August 2012

So here we go, the usual update on the usual pair of lions, Zuri and Safi! Having been at work and being able to see them on a very regular basis, it was easy to realise last week that Safina had come into season, that lasted around about 5-6 days, so quite a while as far as things go!

So during this time Zuri would not leave Safi alone, every single inch that she moved he was there next to her, so I was you would imagine there was quite an atmosphere around their lion enclosure this week, which some visitors found rather hilarious! They must have mated around a couple of hundred times throughout this time period, so who knows what they outcome maybe, possibly cubs but who knows.

As it was incredibly hard during last week to take any decent photos of the two, as whenever Safi came up to say hello, Zuri would not let her go near visitors seeing them as competition, and would try to block our view of her and try to have his way I didn't bother to take my camera into work.

But a couple of days ago, it became clear that Safi had clicked out of season and they are their normal friendly selves who during yesterday lunchtime when I called them over came down to say hello.

As you can see Safi has still remained her normal tarty show-offy self and is well and truly back to normal, head rubbing and purring the fence when coming to see me! This always reminds me how lucky I am, especially now I wear a zoo uniform, the public are always more than happy to hear about the lions, so I think it always special for them to appreciate what these guys are like, and all of them go away it most cases being the closest they will ever get to a lion.

Zuri still protective over Safi, but not as bad as he has been over the past week, always kept his eye on her. All the visitors seem to find him absolutely fantastic, and I don't blame them, what a stunning individual (if not a little short on the front legs but we'll try not to let that bother us!) he has turned into. He is now at the prime of his life, so he will not get any bigger, if not maybe a little porkier as he gets older. Something that I think has just about happened to Safina, approaching seven in November, she is getting a little bit on the chunky side, and she is definately not pregnat (otherwise the last week of being in season would not have happened) So to try and tell whether she is pregnant or not will be near enough impossible til a lot closer to the time she gives birth.

So from now on it is just a waiting game really, and now that they are back to normal I shall continue posting photos such as these on the blog as often as I can.

New girls born at Knowsley - August 2012

Knowsley Safari Park has welcomed the birth of a litter of two female African Lions. This news is particuarly good considering the large amount of male cubs born previously. The birth of females mean that they can stay in the pride and keep it stable, and considering the age of their male Kenya, who is now getting on a bit, a new generation of possible breeding females is an incredibly good thing.

The pictures here below do not belong to me and 

come from the link here.

The two cubs named after Olympic Atheletes Jessica Ennis and Victoria Pendleton have been caught once again on television showing off their sporty skills in this link. This is just a very normal act of play between any kind of big cat young, so it would not have been hard to get video of!

So overall very good news for Knowsley giving them a future generation of breeding females, giving them a prepared start for when Kenya dies and a new male has to be brought in.

Hope you all enjoy the links and photos,

James

Colchester Zoo Lions - 14th August 2012

Here is my last set of photos from yesterdays visit to Colchester Zoo. These photos were taken just before I left at around five o'clock. So the lions had just been fed and the female Malika was going for a walk around their enclosure.

Colchesters enclosure is full of mock rock, with a couple of heated platforms and a few patches of green grass, it is fairly small, not that much larger when compared to their previous enclosure just down the path. The enclosure also only has two bedrooms, as it was originally built for lions Subu and Ashanti.

The enclosure does supply good viewing, the chainlink fence with plenty of vegetation between it and the barrier is quite pleasant, and the glass viewing area between that going up towards the house also gives good views across the enclosure. There is also a viewing area on two floors in the centre of the enclosure, however from the way it is built into the ground (the enclosure does go up a bit on a slope to the back wall, so when you are on the top floor you don't realise that you are as high, which is quite a nice touch). At the other end to the house, is a very large glassy viewing area which looks straight out to a pond, however as lions as a rule do not like water they tend to stay clear of this part and seem not to enter the pond.

As shown by the photos Malika did get fairly close, and she did try to pounce for a little boy infront of me, very interesting behaviour clearly showing that her instincts to pick on the young and the weak are still there as they should be.

One thing that does seem a shame to me, is the amount of electric wire, surely a well built chainlink fence shouldn't need the added amount of electricity? And a well built wooden and mock rock fence at the back, shouldn't need more electricity on it? It just gives it a bit of an over the top feel, and not only that, there are electric wires along the top of the enclosure, from what I can presume has been put there due to a couple of display birds (the display area is next door) have been caught by the lions, and maybe the flags are just to highlight this. It does make it look a little bit silly, and it is a shame, but is a birds display area and a lion enclosure next door really a good combination?

I hope you have enjoyed all of my Colchester photos, and there shall be more of the usual Linton photos posted very soon on my days off.

James