A sparring log for Sovereign

Today we have been busy in the jaguar enclosure, which is of course home to Sovereign. We wanted to give him some large new logs to scratch and clamber on. One of these in particular was very heavy indeed and so a good size for this big cat. We also wanted to secure a hanging log that Sov would be able to tussle and spar with. We hoped that the movement of such a large, strong object would provide much stimulation and activity.

As you can see from the photos, we secured a rope between the two trees (easier said than done!) and then used a small length of chain to attach the log to that. The log had long eye bolts screwed into it to allow the chain to be connected.

Sovereign's response wasn't as quite as dramatic as we'd imagined but, as you can see from the short video, he eventually got the idea of it! We hope he will use it much more in the future and have already had a few thoughts on how we can make it more appealing, such as wrapping it in horse fur. We had altered his enclosure a fair bit, so it's understandable because Sov did have lots of other things to investigate and, of course, scent mark!

Kiruna goes crazy for hanging enrichment

At Dartmoor Zoo we have a carefully designed enrichment programme which means that our animals receive a variety of different types of enrichment on a regular basis. We monitor and record their response to the items we provide so that we know what is successful with each species or individual, and what we need to change or withdraw altogether. A few weeks ago one of our keepers had the idea of hanging up a pelt for some of our small carnivores. They would normally have skin and fur present on their meat, but on its own, and hanging from a branch it encouraged a great deal of activity both from our female red fox Bramble and our female Siberian lynx Kiruna. Kiruna can be seen with this enrichment in the short video clip below.

Christmas Trees Wanted!

If you are thinking of taking down your Christmas tree down in the next few days and taking it to the tip, please don't! We would be grateful for any trees as we can use these for enrichment in our animal enclosures. Thank you.

Boxing Day Photos

I did create a lovely slideshow for this but have experienced the usual technical problems with blogger! Anyway, as you can see our animals enjoyed their festive enrichment.

Boxing Day Bash!

Boxing Day is always a hightlight of the DZP calender. For those of you yet to visit on 26th December, the day is full of festive fun for our animals. We always receive lots of positive comments from our visitors who enjoy watching the animals' experience of Christmas. Well, this year is no exception and we have an exciting programme of events for the day.


11.00 The vervet monkeys have their Christmas party with crackers and presents

12.00 The bears enjoy their Christmas Dinner

2.00 The lions open their stockings
Followed by the tigers unwrapping their Christmas presents

2.45 A chance to meet and greet our reindeer: Donna, Comet and Blitzen

3.15 The otters recieve their Christmas gifts

With the exception of the reindeer meet and greet, each activity will be accompanied by a talk from a member of our education department. We hope you will be able to come and join us.

Josie's Birthday Video

It has only taken a little over two months! Finally I've been able to upload this onto the blog. I hope it is worth the wait.

Stripe and Blotch enjoy the simple things in life

Well, it's taken so long to get videos onto the blog and now in one afternoon three have been accepted! The clips below show Stripe, one of our 8 year old Amur tigers, playing with a large cardboard tube covered in strong smelling spices. Stripe, her twin sister Blotch, and their younger brother Vladimir love anything they can rip up and destroy! For this reason we have to carefully consider enrichment we give them so they do not come to any harm.

We frequently use olfactory enrichment with the cats (enrichment which stimulates the sense of smell) because this sense is really important to them. In the wild, tigers would spend a lot of their time patrolling their territory and scent marking. In order to encourage this natural behaviour we put various scents in the enclosures and on enrichment items. Some of their favourites are catnip, curry powder, mixed spice and cumin. We also use herbs and perfumes. These give the animals something different to analyse and they then cover up the foreign smell with their own odour, either by rubbing themselves all over it or, of course, by spraying!

The videos were taken a few weeks ago, but these photos of Blotch and the new hanging boomer ball were taken on Thursday. This time four straps of fire hose were used as a sling and it was hung from a tree by a long chain. When the lions had it recently, it only had two straps and Solomon managed to pop the ball out and it rolled down the hill! Hopefully this won’t happen with the tigers because it will end up in the moat if it does, and the keepers do not enjoy trying to retrieve it from there!

Thursday was a feed day so we put the ball up while the tigers were in their houses. Vlad came out and got his food, sat down and ate it. Stripe came out and got her food, sat down and ate it. Blotch however, came out and played with the Boomer ball! We had to call her away to make sure she got her food and one of the others didn’t eat it.

Video update

You may remember in an earlier blog I explained that we were having some difficulties uploading videos onto this site. As it turns out, Blogger has been experiencing technical problems and the only answer seems to be plenty of patience and persistance! Unfortunately I am still unable to upload Josie's Birthday Party video but the service has begun to accept some of our other enrichment videos. These will be posted whenever possible! The first is below and shows Tazmin, our 13 year old Amur tigress. When she lived at Tiger Rock, Taz would often cool off in the moat up there; however, since her move to Tiger Ridge a year ago, the keepers haven't seen her using the pool in this enclosure at all. In an attempt to encourage her into the water we made a raft, chained it to two breeze blocks at the bottom of the pool and placed some of her meat onto it when she was fed. For several weeks we would return later in the day to find the meat gone so hoped for the best; then the following footage was taken.

Unfortunately, as can be seen in the clip below, Tazmin cleverly manages to keep her paws largely dry as she stretches and swipes to reach her meat. We have since tried lowering the level of the water and the raft whenever we clean the pool but so far she always finds a way to get the food - even if we use many small peices instead! There is a large boulder in one corner which would allow Taz to step down into the pool gradually but she remains unconvinced. Having said that, it is only quite recently that Vlad, Blotch and Stripe have started using the moat at Tiger Rock, and of course they moved at the same time as Tazmin. Perhaps she just needs a little more time...

Blotch tries to kill the Boomer ball

We thought you would like to see these photographs of one of our Amur tigers, Blotch, apparently attempting to drown and suffocate a large boomer ball! They were taken at lunchtime today. Tigers, unlike most other cats, enjoy water and Blotch was oblivious to the fact that she was also splashing guests in her excitement! We provide our animals with enrichment such as Boomer balls to challenge them and to encourage natural behaviours. Blotch appeared to be treating the ball like a prey animal and would not let her younger brother Vladimir, or her twin sister Stripe, too close to it! For a few minutes at a time Blotch would grapple with the ball and attempt to take it up onto the bank. If it slipped out of her grip she would reach out and pull it back in again and under control.

As mentioned in an earlier blog we hope to give the tigers a hanging boomer ball soon. They clearly provide a good workout, keeping the carnivores fit and mentally stimulated.

Solomon steals the limelight at Josie's party

On Saturday we celebrated our lioness Josie's 9th birthday. As explained in a previous blog we threw her a party with lots of enrichment. Josie and her father Solomon had their meat cut into small peices and hidden in hessian sacks with straw (one of which we hung from a tree). It was also concealed in birthday boxes and tubes, these are just cardboard but covered in colourful wrapping paper. We also gave them the hanging boomer ball and stuffed meat behind the fire hose straps (see previous blog for further details). Finally the lions had ginger, thyme, and Josie's personal favourite, catnip, scented in their enclosure.

Josie was quick to demolish the boxes and the hessian sack but Solomon amazed the watching crowd as he swung off the hanging sack and tore it down. He spent a lot of time getting the meat from the hanging boomer ball; using his great weight and strength he even managed to pop it out of the sling. He looked puzzled as it bounced down the enclosure, but was later seen rolling it around on the ground. This design will need adapting before it is given to our tigers next!

We have made a short video which we had hoped to include below, however numerous technical issues currently prevent this! We hope that in time videos will become regular features of the blog. Come back to the blog soon if you were unable to visit on Saturday, hopefully you will enjoy a few clips from the afternoon.

Coati enclosure gets a makeover

After completing the refurbishment of the vervet monkey enclosure recently, we set our sights on the coati pen. Our six ring-tailed, or brown-nosed, coati moved into their current enclosure back in January. Basil, a nine year old male, and Junior, a three year old female, produced four healthy babies in May last year. As a result they outgrew their previous home beside the monkeys. Their new enclosure used to house the serval cats, and is much higher and longer. When the youngsters were eight months old we decided it was time to move the family. This now included an additional male, Diego, and three more females, Fonzo, Julio and Zorro.

Coati are members of the raccoon family, unlike all other members of this family they are diurnal, which means they are active during the day and sleep at night. They live in forests across large areas of South America. Coati are omnivores, eating a wide variety of plant and animal matter, and they use their highly sensitive nose and excellent sense of smell to locate their food. They forage both on the ground and in the trees.

The species is well known for digging and shredding so we had to remember this when revamping their enclosure, hopefully then they wouldn't destroy everything we put in! First of all we took down the old ropes. Except for the fire hose hammock, the items now hanging from the roof are all new. These include new ropes and fire hoses to climb, a hanging tube, fire hose swing and a rope ladder. One of our keepers, Ben, designed a new enrichment object which we are all calling the hot air balloon for that is what it resembles! It is a hanging horizontal life buoy, covered in rope, from which hangs a small wooden box where we can place some of their food. The coati are often seen sitting in this, despite its unusual appearance it is a definite success with them!

As we worked our way down to the ground, dead plants and old logs were removed. Most of the larger climbing structures were left this time. We have spent time planting about a dozen or so new bushes and shrubs and have surrounded these with rocks in the hope it will increase their lifespan! We also tried to use plants that were less appealing to the coati, we used some grasses and ferns, but soon discovered these were irresistible to them! They have been replaced with hardier species.

The main enclosure refurbishment is now complete for the coati, but like all of the animals at the zoo they are given enrichment on a regular basis. Items such as puzzle feeders, fruitbergs, and feeder balls are popular. A fresh layer of bark chip is also added whenever we get a delivery; they forage through this and pick out all of the invertebrates.

Fire hose fun for Sovereign

Thanks to another large donation of fire hose from the fire brigade this week, the keepers have been very busy creating a variety of enrichment devices. Fire hose is used by lots of zoos, it is incredably durable and therefore safe to use with even the most destructive of our animals.

Sovereign, our ten year old male jaguar, was one of the first to benefit from the delivery. We decided to make a sling for a large boomer ball and to hang this up from a tree in his enclosure. Boomer balls are a firm favourite with the carnivores but by suspending one up high, the type of movement possible would obviously be very different. It was made so that peices of meat could be wedged between the straps and the ball, making food acquisition much more of a challenge! After a week or two, the object will be removed and hung in one of our other cat enclosures for a short time so that Sovereign doesn't become bored with it. The scent of other felines on the ball as it is rotated around the enclosures can only add interest.

Fire hose was also randomly woven between the other trees in the jaguar enclosure and loose ends left hanging down. We hope Sovereign will perhaps bat and pull on these, and we can also suspend food from them.

Our curator Will has made this browse holder and we will be making more in the near future. These will be given to many species including the vervet monkeys, coati, tapir and reindeer. We have plenty of other ideas for the fire hose including a hammock for the bears.

Josie's Birthday Bash

Our beautiful lioness Josie will be 9 years old on Saturday 29th August and the keepers are already busy planning her party! On the afternoon of her birthday we will be giving our lions lots of enrichment. We are letting you know in plenty of time so that you can come and watch Josie, and her father Solomon, receiving the presents. So, what do you get a lioness for her birthday? Well, a party is not a party without food! It will be a feed day for the lions but their meat will be hidden around the enclosure and inside some of the enrichment items. This is going to include birthday cardboard boxes, hanging hessian sacks, boomer balls and scents. In addition they will each be given a birthday bloodberg. This is the big cat alternative to chocolate cake!

Josie was born at Dartmoor Zoo in 2000 and grew up in a pride of 4 lions, with her parents Peggy and Solomon, and maternal grandmother Emma. Unfortunately Peggy died of lung cancer in 2006 and old age caught up with a 20 year old Emma in 2007. Solomon however, now 14, is still Josie's companion and, as he has been vasectomised, there is no danger of them breeding. Josie is a very cheeky, playful and agile girl; we are looking forward to celebrating her special day and hope there will be plenty of people in fine voice to sing Happy Birthday to her!

Enrichment items wanted

In order to further develop the enrichment programme at Dartmoor Zoo, two keepers recently attended the 9th International Conference on Environmental Enrichment. This year it was hosted by Paignton Zoo and held in Torquay. The conference was attended by around 250 delegates, with people travelling from all continents to listen to a variety of presentations, many given by experts in the field. The keepers learned a great deal from the week and are now starting to trial some of the techniques discussed.

Designing enrichment devices, providing them to the animals and assessing how well (or not!) they are recieved is a very important part of a zoo keepers job. It is also one of the most fun! Visitors often ask us if they can do anything to help and we feel this is an area in which they certainly can. If you can donate any of the following items they will be used for enrichment. Many are household items you may consider rubbish and throw out routinely. Anything listed here would be greatfully recieved.

Plastic film canisters

Hessian sacks
Ice cube trays
Ice cream containers and lids
Curver storage boxes (and lids if possible)
Lentils
Dried fruit
Nuts
A sprinkler system (for our tigers)
Ceramic strawberry planters
Boomer balls
Kongs
Dog toys
Pots of herbs and spices
Old perfume
Lengths of metal chain
Plastic spray bottles

A Weekend of Adventure...

If you've visited the zoo in the last month you will know that we moved our red foxes into the old 'Tiger Mountain' enclosure. However, the idea was always to rotate the silver and red foxes between this enclosure and the adjacent silver fox enclosure. Even though they are all one species (the silver foxes are just a colour variation of the red fox), the animals cannot be mixed as they would fight.

Bramble and Foxy, our red foxes, appeared to enjoy their time in 'Tiger Mountain'; they dug a cosy den into the side of the hill and were even seen trying to catch some dinner! After four weeks the keepers felt it was time for the first rotation, and to allow the silvers access to a brand new enclosure.

Both pairs of foxes are very co-operative and the houses have inter-connecting doors so the physical process of moving the animals is very easy and not at all stressful. Buddy and Jabba, the silver fox brothers, needed no persuading and were quick to enter the larger enclosure on Saturday morning. Bramble and Foxy were also keen to explore an area of the zoo they had never been into before.

Alternating the foxes in these enclosures is a fantastic form of environmental enrichment, by providing new sights, structures and smells on a regular basis. As territorial mammals, the task of establishing and defending a territory becomes a much more real one too. Bramble was this lunchtime busily scent marking, trying to cover up that silver fox odour! We aim to rotate the animals monthly as of now.