Big Summer Blowout?

First of all, if you haven't seen the movie Frozen, do it.

And now, on to other news.

A few weeks ago, Richard and I went up to Portland for his birthday weekend. It was a lot of fun! We checked out Powell's Bookstore, which is a whole city block of new and used books. Richard was in heaven! We cruised around Portland and Beaverton, had some traditional Thai food for dinner at Pok Pok's (which was different and very good!). After dinner we went to Salt & Straw for ice cream (they have lots of cool, tasty, non-traditional flavors). I've decided that if I had to drink Thai Iced Tea everyday, I would not complain.

One of the highlights of the weekend was going to the Oregon Zoo. Being an intern at Wildlife Safari definitely has its perks; my supervisor was able to arrange a behind-the-scenes tour of some of carnivore areas of the zoo! It was especially cool because Richard got to see some of the things keepers do on a daily basis (which was similar to what we do at W.S.). We got to see their male siberian tiger, breeding pair of amur leopards, brother-sister pair of polar bears (they are huge!!!), 2 female sun bears (they are so little and cute), stellar sea lion, 2 sea otters, 2 cheetah brothers, and their pride of lions (they have 3 adorable cubs!!). The pair that had the three cubs are the brother of Sarabi, and sister of Tau, the breeding pair of lions W.S. had last year. We got to watch the keepers give out some enrichment for the otters, train the cheetahs (who says cheetahs are dumb...? Oh wait.), and do some practice voluntary blood draws from the tail. We got to touch the tails of a cheetah and a lion! So, basically, that was super cool.

On Richard's birthday we went to Ground Kontrol, which is a 1990s classic arcade (with games like, Asteroids, Super Mario Brothers, Dig Dug, Street Fighter, Pinball, etc) and a bar. Dare I say, it's a Barcade? It. Was. AWESOME. The games were 25-50 cents each, and we had a great time reminiscing. The food was cheap, nerdy and equally awesome. They had things like hotdogs, nachos, PB&J, hummus,big soft pretzels, Banana-Nutella-Marshmallow toasties, etc etc etc. The day we went was super busy because of the Portland Pinbrawl - a huge pinball tournament! So, we couldn't play pinball (which was fine with us!). We had a great time, and will definitely be going back!

Over the weekend we also looked at apartments. We decided a while ago that we want to move up to the Portland-Vancouver area. We managed to find an apartment complex that is currently being built (they have finished about 3 out of the 10 buildings they will have), so they will have apartments ready to move in by the time frame we would be able to move. It's a really nice place, in a nice area of Vancouver. We got to look at a few of the apartment that were finished. The price was right, and BONUS we would be the first people in the apartment so everything would be brand-spanking-new. Richard is excited because they have a sweet deal for pretty good internet, which he would need so he can work remotely for his company form home. So, we applied and we got the apartment, so we are super excited!

In other news, work has been pretty cool the last few weeks. Monday was probably the longest day I've ever worked (not including the shift at the hotel when we had to evacuate everyone due to the fires... that was fun). First thing Monday morning, we start cleaning lion huts, and I'm moving the toys out of the rooms so I can hose everything off, and I managed to drop a 40lb log on my foot. Holy balls, did that hurt. So, I spent most of the morning hobbling around, afraid to look at my foot. Eventually I took off my shoe to make sure it wasn't bleeding, and then later took off my sock to see how bad the bruising was. Yeahhhhh, bruised the heck out of it, but pretty sure it's not broken. Well, who knows. Things seemed to be going pretty smoothly after that, until after lunch. We headed down to QB to finish up diets and set up huts and such. I was carrying a few buckets of diets to put in the truck when I slipped and fell pretty hard. Thankfully it didn't hurt all that much, but I sure when down with a bang. I somehow managed not to spill too much of the diets, so that was also pretty lucky. What a good day.

Since Wildlife Safari is a drive through park, we have to follow the last car through the park and close the gates behind them. The drive through closes at 5pm, and the park officially closes at 6:30pm (giving cars that enter the park at 5pm time to get through the park). Some days, for some reason, we allow cars in up to 10 minutes late (WHY!?). So on Tuesday, last car entered the park at 5:10pm. Once we get the call, we can put up lions, and then start closing gates. Entrance gate, lion drive through gates, Africa-Wetlands gate, Wetlands-Americas gate, bear drive through gates, America-Africa gate, Africa-Asia gate, Asia-dead zone gate, Cheetah drive through entrance and exit gates, and finally the exit gate. It usually goes pretty smoothly: lions and Saigon go up at 5ish, bears at 5:30, and cheetah drive through closes at 6:15. Somedays, however, people come in late, with their fancy-schmancy cameras and take pictures of EVERYTHING. I mean E-V-E-R-Y thing. Including wild turkeys. There is also a rule that when a rhino is on the road, you can't stop (reducing the risk of damage to the car). Tarryn has been a little moody lately, because Jack has been locked in the BOMA for a few days for some hoof-trimming (she freaks out when she can't see him). We had to remind our last car to keep moving. They joked about us not being the only one wanting to clock out (meaning the rhino was in a rush to leave). They didn't get the idea that they should prooobably keep moving, and kept taking their time. So by 6:30 pm, the last car with their super fancy camera who was taking pictures of everything was just entering Asia. We had to remind them the park was closed and they needed to mosey. Thankfully most of the animals in asia are heard animals and birds, so they were less inclined to take a zillion pictures of yak. They missed the bears, and the cheetahs and Saigon. Just for taking too many pictures of wild turkeys and geese. We finally closed all the gates and clocked out at 6:51pm. 12 hour day. So tired. So so tired.

So, that was exciting. I know you all were gripping the edges of your seats with anticipation of how that would end. I promise the next post will be more exciting and better written. And that it will have more pictures!!

Tune in next week for Bright Lights, Big Kitty.

Cheetahs nevah prospah

What is there to say about Cheetahs?

I suppose we can start with the most commonly known facts:

1. Cheetahs are fast. They can reach speeds of up to 70mph in about 3 seconds. 
2. They have spots (around 3000!).
3. They are big cats.

Hulets! He's an old man (16!) and very talkative.

So. Cheetahs are fast you say. Why, yes! They are the fastest land mammal! Yes, this means they are faster than a tiger, and no, I can't tell you who would win in a fight, because they don't reside in the same region. And no, alligators, airplanes and Super Mario are not mammals, so I cannot accurately tell you if a cheetah is faster than them.... And NO, you may not pet the cheetah! It's actually illegal to pet them!  We get asked a lot of *awesome* questions by children on our encounters. But, back to the cheetahs being super fast thing I know you're all anxious to hear about ("There are pins and needles that I am sitting on!"). Cheetahs are full of adaptations that are built for speed! They can run 70mph for about 20-60 seconds. For this reason, cheetahs quietly creep up as close to their prey as they can before beginning the chase to reduce losing their prey in the short bursts of speed.

Cheetahs have really good long distance vision; they can see in great detail up to 3 miles away! This is like having permanent binoculars. They cannot see very well up close, and their sense of smell is poor. They give up a good sense of smell for enlarged nasal cavities to help them intake more air as they are running at speed. The most distinct feature of a cheetah's face is the tear streak markings around their eyes. This feature helps reduce glare from the sun during their chase in order to see better and hunt down their prey.

Moonfire; Distinctive tear lines help us tell the cats apart

The body shape of a cheetah is lean and long, giving up the powerful muscles of a lion or a tiger in order to reduce bulk that would otherwise prevent them from attaining their top speeds. They have long tails that serve as both a rudder for steering and as a counterweight. Their claws are partially retractable, meaning they are always out just a little bit, which helps with traction as they are running just like soccer cleats. They also have a super sharp dewclaw that they use as a trip wire during their high-speed chases, knocking prey to the ground, and then ultimately biting their necks for the kill. Cheetahs on average weigh around 90lbs, and if you can see definition in their hips and shoulders, that is considered a healthy cat.

McHumba's paws; check out those claws!

Cheetahs are only successful in about half of their chases, and must eat quickly after a kill so they don't lose out to larger predators. Unfortunately, all that high speed running takes about 30 minutes to recover from! This brings us to spots! The fur in cheetah spots is actually less dense than the surrounding fur, which helps draw heat away from the body helping to cool them down. They run so fast that they can over heat, which can actually lead to losing brain cells! So the spots are not only to help with camouflage, but they are another adaptation for high-speed running! It's a good thing they have so many!

One of Moonfire's 6 month old cubs 

(Dapper or Donovan, I can't tell them apart!)

Cheetahs are pretty small for big cats, however, cheetahs and mountain lions are the largest cats that can purr. As a trade off, lions and tigers can roar, but they they can't purr. So, basically you can do one or the other but not both. This has to do with the size and flexibility of the hyoid bone in their throats (which I think is actually cartilage). Cheetahs make a variety of sounds to communicate with each other. Sometimes it sounds like a bird chirping, sometimes a cat meowing, sometimes even a dog barking! This is probably used to confuse predators and prey alike. My cat chirps like a cheetah, but I think that's just because he's special.

One of my favorite things in animal care is preparing enrichment for the animals. It's so much fun to do with the bears, because you can give them just about anything edible, and lots of cool toys and they love it all. Lions and tigers and cheetahs are harder to enrich, but cheetahs are practically impossible. They are not excited about anything! You can't really feed them anything other than meat, because they have sensitive tummies (this is why we have to trim off all the fat from their diets). They eat an all meat diet, about 3-5lbs a day, with at least one day a week for fasting. This is done to mimic the gorge-and-fast predation seen in the wild. Once they get a kill, they eat as much as they can because they don't know when their next meal will be! So we fast them here to keep them from getting overweight, and also to help their bodies detox from all the bacteria and toxins in the meat. This helps their stomachs establish and build up a healthy balance of good bacteria, and gets rid of all the bad stuff.


To sum it all up, cheetahs are built for speed, are incredibly dumb, have lots of spots and make cool sounds. I LOVE all the sounds they make. *swoon*

So, that's a brief bit about cheetahs! If you have any other questions, feel free to let me know! If there are any other topics you want me to cover in future posts, throw them at me!

Coming soon to a blog near you!

Big summer blowout?: updates about me and my non-safari and safari adventures alike!
Bright Lights, Big Kitty: we'll talk about Saigon, our Siberian Tiger
Wonder Twin Powers Activate!: tales of Khayam and McHumba

Congratulations, it's a girl!

Two girls, to be exact! Wildlife Safari is happy to announce the arrival of our two young lionnesses, Mtai and Serafina. We have been waiting for these two girls from the St. Louis Zoo in Missouri since November! Poor weather this past winter prevented them from shipping out as expected, but they arrived about 2 weeks ago, and were released on display on Monday.

The girls in the huts (Serafina in the back, Mtai front and center)

(Photo credit to Jordan)

These gorgeous girls were born on Valentine's Day two years ago, making them just a few months older than our boys, Tsavo and Enzi, who will turn two in June. The boys are very excited about the arrival of the girls, and are very curious.

Mtai is the larger of the two girls, who is similar to Tsavo in personality. She's usually in your face first, and very food motivated, which makes it really easy to shift her. She is very playful, and especially likes to bite her sister in the butt.

Mtai loves watching us clean. She is fond of trying to catch the broom through the doors and under the fences.

She also loves this tree!

Serafina is a little more shy, and unsure of her new surroundings. I'm not sure she likes the boys very much. Hopefully she will adjust to her new home soon. I don't have any good pictures of her yet, because she likes to keep her distance.

Tsavo and Enzi are a very special pair. As I may have mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the boys' father and mother were a gift from Africa to the sheik of Qatar. Unfortunately, after giving birth to her three cubs, their mother didn't make it. She was not fully developed because she was so young, so the births were too much for her. After this tragedy, the sheik decided it wasn't really the best idea to have lions as pets, and gifted the family of lions to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Wildlife Safari was among a few lucky zoos and wildlife parks in the nation that entered in a drawing to have these animals at their facilities. The boys' father and sister went to separate zoos, and we got the two boys about a year ago. This family of lions have a very rare line of genetics that is not represented in North America, so they are ideal for breeding (we call these "founders").

(Photo credit to Suz) Enzi on the left, Tsavo on the right

The Species Survival Plan (SSP) is a facet of AZA which helps arrange breeding pairs in animals across North American zoos, keeping track of genetics and former breeding to prevent inbreeding, and to help maintain a healthy population of captive animals (so we don't have to take from the wild). Being part of the SSP helped us land the two girls, who are planned to breed with the boys, should introductions go smoothly.

Introducing the animals is likely to be a long, and interesting process, that will require a lot of patience and keen observation. The process includes scent intros, visual intros (all from a distance), and eventually, should their temperaments allow, they can share a fence line, and eventually (fingers crossed) they will be allowed in the same pen, and monitored for breeding behavior. This is not a process to be rushed! But hopefully we will see some lion cubs in the near future. We haven't had lion cubs born at Wildlife Safari in over 20 years!

Enzi is just so handsome!

The boys were born in a palace, and basically hand-raised so they are really social with the keepers and interns in our department. The girls, on the other hand were mom-raised, and have very different temperaments with the staff. I'm excited to see some fun enrichment and training with these girls as they get more comfortable in their new environment.



And now its time for the answer to the blog question of the day/week/month/year:

Andiamo (Andi)

Q: How many spots does a cheetah have?

A: A single cheetah can have anywhere from 2000-3000 spots!! If I told you that McHumba had 2387 spots on her, you would have to believe me (because I've counted!).

Ok, no. I haven't counted. That would be silly.

So, I originally had planned to share some cool cheetah facts this week, but with the arrival of the new lions, you will have to wait till next week!

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good..."

“Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…”

Wait. This isn’t the Wizarding World of Harry Potter….. My bad.

Dear Miss Schmidt,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been offered an extension to your internship at Wildlife Safari…

That’s totally how the letter would have gone, had they need to write one. Instead, last weekend (by weekend, I mean weekend for normal people), we had our intern reviews. Our department’s intern coordinators basically sit us down and tell us what we are doing well, and what we need to improve on. After my review they told me that they wanted to offer me an extension to work as an intern during the summer session as well, should I choose to accept. Clearly this is good news, and that they like me enough to keep me around for another three months! I wasn’t the only one extended in the carn/cheetah department, but to protect the innocent, I will refrain from stating who didn’t get extended, or who chose not to extend (fools). SO I’M EXTENDING!!

Technically, they are not supposed to extend us, so to get around this, I will be labeled as a Cheetah Intern for the summer, though still mostly staying with Carnivores. This basically translates to being a swinger that can cater to either departments needs at the drop of a hat. So this is what those of us who extend get to do. “Switch departments”, and become swingers. To help this along, they have started cross-training us, which I am stoked about because I get to hang out more with cheetahs and with Saigon (the most handsome tiger I’ve ever met), while still getting to hang out with my lions and bears. It’s basically a win-win all around.

Now, I know you’ve all been wondering: What is the best way to tell the difference between black bears and brown bears?

One of the best ways to tell them apart is the hump on the backs of brown bears. Brown bears, such as our grizzly boys, are well known for their digging capabilities, and they have a hump on their backs, which represents their bulky shoulder muscles. They also have longer claws than black bears, which also help them dig. However, if you are close enough to see their claws, and you’re not at a zoo or wildlife park… you’re in trouble! Another way to tell them apart is by their size. Black bears tend to be much smaller than brown bears, but this is hard to tell if you don’t have them next to each other for comparison. Our grizzly boys weigh between 500-800lbs right now (Oso is the smallest), and our black bear kids are probably ranging from 300-600lbs (not sure the last time they were weighed).

If you said you could tell them apart by their color, you’re in for a surprise! If you noticed in my previous post, Takoda is brown black bear. Black bears come in lots of different colors, ranging from cinnamony-reddish brown to black, so judging by the color alone is not very helpful at all.

So now you know!

Since we have started our cross-training with the cheetah department, I wanted to share a cool story about one of our cheetahs and her slightly unconventional sister, an Anatolian shepherd dog.

(I cannot take credit for this photo)

Sanurra is a female cheetah born in November of 2005 at Wildlife Safari as a single birth. Singleton cubs are usually rejected by their mothers due to the high mortality rate of cubs in the wild, and the mothers generally weigh out their options and figure that one cub isn’t really worth investing all that time and energy. After 11 days, her mother rejected Sanurra, and the keeper staff stepped in and hand raised her. Worried that she would be lonely and bored, they decided to get her a puppy.

Ellie is an Anatolian Shepherd, born September of 2005, who arrived at Wildlife Safari in January of 2006. The Anatolian Shepherd breed was chosen for Sanurra specifically because of their use by the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) to save cheetahs in the wild.

The story is, that farmers in Namibia were worried that wild cheetahs were going to eat all their livestock, as cheetahs are considered pests. Cheetahs are very flighty animals, and would rather abandon a kill, versus stay and defend it from something bigger or louder than them. Enter the Anatolian shepherd: the dogs are able to protect the livestock merely by barking. The bark is enough to make the cheetahs run away, which eliminates the need for farmers to kill the cheetahs. In fact, the Anatolian shepherds have been so successful that there is a 2-year waiting list for farmers to get one from CCF!

So instead of bonding Ellie with livestock, we chose to bond her with Sanurra, to help spread the message of cheetah conservation. It really helps bring the connection between the efforts made in captivity to protect the cheetah (such as maintaining a captive breeding population to avoid taking cheetahs from the wild), to the conservation work being done in Africa to protect the wild populations.

These two, like sisters, don’t get along 100% of the time, but they seek each other out for comfort and enrich each other’s lives.

(I cannot take credit for this photo either)

Over 170 cheetah cubs have been born at Wildlife Safari since its’ opening in 1972. As far as cheetah breeding, WS is second in the world only to Africa (come on, it’s hard to compete with Africa!). Cheetahs are incredibly difficult to breed, because they are very high stress animals, and extremely flighty. Wildlife Safari has a great advantage over other facilities because it has a lot of space. Situated on 600 acres, this drive-thru park is the perfect setting for cheetah breeding away from Africa. Out of 19 cheetahs currently at the park, only about half of them can be seen in the drive-thru, while the other half are off display in the cheetah breeding areas.

I can even name all 19 cheetahs.

The girls: Sanurra, McHumba, Taini, Marlindi, Moyo, Moonfire, Kenya, Kira, Imara, Charo, Ronnie, and Zuri.

The boys: Khayam, Hulets, Dapper, Donovan, Frankie, Andi and Roble.

And now for the question of the week:

How many spots does a cheetah have? (**not the number of spots in the picture below)

Tune in next week for some fun cheetah facts!

"Mischief managed."

Bear with me on this one....

So, I mentioned a while back that we work with 11 bears.  I don't know if I really talked about all of them!

We will start off this entry with the obligatory question of the day:

What's the best way to tell the difference between a black bear and a brown bear?

Tune in next time to find out!

Grizzly bears - Victor, Mak and Oso. 9 year old boys. Orphaned, and brought in from Alaskan Fish and Wildlife. I have posted many pictures of these goof balls. They are not true brothers, but have been together since they were two since they came to Wildlife Safari. The boys are currently up to 16 pieces of produces a piece, 2 quarts of dog food and 2 pounds of meat. Victor is the blondest with the longest face. Mak has a much rounder, darker face and overall fur. If he opens his mouth, you can see a canine in his lower jaw has been ground down (he had a root canal). He is often seen hanging out by himself, but he is one of the best for doing the Big Bear behavior, because he will hold it for as long as it takes for you to toss that donut to him! Oso is the littlest bear, and he has little bug eyes. It has taken me most of the past month to learn to tell these guys apart. I feel accomplished!

Suz training the boys during a Big Bear. Perfectly timed TEETH!

Alaskan Coastals - Claire and Russell. 26, and 27 year old girls. Orphaned, and brought in from Alaskan Fish and Wildlife. Also, not sisters, but have spent their whole lives together. The best way to tell these two girls apart is that Russell has really fluffy ears, and Claire has crazy eyes! The girls are eating 12 pieces of produce, 1.5 quarts of dog food, and 3 pounds of meat a day! We don't do the encounters with these two because of their age, and we don't want them to hurt their joints by asking them to stand up so many times. I've actually never seen any training with them since I've been here, but the latest hire is their primary trainer, so I'm sure we will see some soon!

Russell (see her fluffy ears?) and Claire. 

Black bear kids - Takoda, Chochmo (boys) & Donna. They are 5, 6, and 7 years old. Not sure where they came from, probably same story as the brown bears except from they are likely from Oregon. Takoda is a brown black bear. Chochmo and Donna both have black coats, and the best way to tell them apart is that Donna is very round. It's fun training these guys because you can feed them handfuls of nuts through the fence (just don't stick your fingers in!). I just love the sound they make when they are scarfing down nuts. It's just a cute nom. Oh, and beeteedubs, Donna doesn't like walnuts. I like to give her cupcakes. This is probably why she is so round. Not from me! But from everyone wanting to give her cupcakes. These kids get 12 produce, 3 qts of dog food and 4 lbs of meat a day!!

Takoda (T-bear) standing on his pool

Alyssa feeding 'Mo some mixed nuts

Suz training with Chochmo

Suz training with Donna

Black bear adults - Little Girl, Little Boy and Ricky. I think they are in their twenties. Little Girl's real name is something like Mollalla (??), and Little Boy's real name is Detroit (I think). Ricky is just Ricky (or scrunchie face). I have been told that I will probably never see Little Girl because she only comes out from hibernation for 2 months (September and October). Ricky and Little Boy have been pretty active this week, so I guess technically they are out of hibernation now. Ricky and Little Boy are just started getting 8 pieces of produce (instead of 5), 1 qt of dog food and 1 lb of meat. I'm sure we will see increases in everyone's diets soon!

Ricky

That's all for now! Tune in next time to get a closer look at some of the other animals I work with, and to find out the answer to the question of the day!