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Keeper Diary - Spring 2007
The beginning of a new year at a zoo and as ever very busy!! On Mammals South there have been plenty of goings on, including two monkey departures in Kindi our male Diana monkey and Kikwit our male Owl faced monkey.
© ZSLWe were sad to see both of them go, but, in both cases it was the best option for the animal. Kikwit was on his own following the sad death of his elderly partner Olivia and Kindi had become sexually mature and so needed to be moved from living with his sisters to some unrelated females with which he could mate. Both of the moves went smoothly with Kikwit jetting off to Antwerp and Kindi not going as far and moving to Twycross. We were delighted to hear that both arrived safely and settled into their new homes.
I have also been busy with my fellow keeper Andy fixing the bears’ outdoor shelter, which they had ripped the roof off. This was not a wise move by the bears, Ursula and Columbo as it caused leakages so they could no longer shelter from the rain and so we needed to fix it for them. Silly bears! The roof needed to be heavily reinforced as bears are notoriously investigative and the particular species that Ursie and Lumbo are, Sloth bears, have massive claws. In the wild they use these to rip open termite mounds to feed on the insects inside, but, it also turns out the claws are also great at ripping open shelters like a can opener!!!
© ZSLOnce fixed, the bears had a quick look at the roof, and then to our relief settled down inside to sleep on the heated floor. What a life! I think they realised destroying it would only mean a wet bed again so they opted for a warm, relaxing snooze.
More news next time………………
