Welcome to Ellie Watch

Apologies, this weeks post is very short. 

I was supposed to write about Saigon this week. I can tell you right now, that's not going to happen. 

Today, after an overnight cub watch, I got home at 5am, slept for 4 hours and weed eated one of the yards at the intern house. "Why on earth would I do this?" you may ask. It's all for Ellie. 

Yep, Ellie, the Anatolian shepherd that hangs out with a cheetah. Ellie had surgery on her leg and is now living at the  intern house during her 8-week recovery. So Emily and I weed eated the fenced-in yards at the house this week so she could have an outdoor area. So that's what we will be up to this week, and the next 8 weeks: making sure she doesn't get too excited, run, lick her stitches, as well as making sure she eats and takes her meds, which is tricky business. 

Welcome to Ellie Watch. 

Special News Report, Part Deux

It has come to my attention that I didn't explain WHY we have to hand feed Maximus.


Moyo, first time, hand-raised mom, had a singleton cub. If you remember from my previous post about cheetahs ("I solemnly swear that I am up to no good"), singleton cubs aren't typically reared by the mother for a few reasons. Usually, its a case of the mother weighing her options and deciding that one cub wasn't worth all the time and energy that it takes to care for their offspring. Sometimes milk production isn't stimulated, so even if the mother tries to care for it, the cub would starve after a few days because mom dries up. Sometimes the mothers even eat the cub! Additionally, first time moms who were hand-raised don't know what to do with cubs, and often reject them. If they were to breed again, the likelihood of them having a larger littler is greater (for reasons unknown to me - I will try to get more info on that!), so then they might be more likely to take care of them. However, Khayam and McHumba were rejected by mom, but their sisters from the next litter (Charo, Roni and Zuri) were all mom-raised. It just depends, I guess.

In the case of Moyo, well, we're not even sure she knew she was pregnant. One day she stops eating and maybe doesn't feel so great, and all of a sudden this thing falls out of her, and she probably thought it was just a big turd (scientific, I know). We have cameras set up in the breeding areas to monitor the cats in labor, etc., so the keepers were able to watch her when she gave birth. She apparently had the cub, wondered what the heck fell out of her, sniffed it and walked away. Cheetah staff immediately stepped in and pulled him because Moyo doesn't like other cheetahs, so we figured it was possible she would eat the cub.

So the cub was brought to the clinic, apparently not breathing, so Sarah and cheetah/carn staff worked on stabilizing him and preparing a milk replacer (we're using a KMR solution). He's since been sleeping, eating, and pooping like a champ.


So there you have it. Or not. Sorry if this post is a little jumbled. We're all tired from all the overnight feedings! But he is worth it!

Special Edition: # 174

We interrupt this program with a special news report:

As of May 3, 2014, Wildlife Safari is proud to welcome Maximus, the 174th cheetah cub born since the park's opening in 1972.

Yesterday, a media release went out announcing our newest addition, so we are officially allowed to share information and photos from our time spent with the little guy. 

Now, prepare your self for cuteness. Should you feel the need to "squee", that is 100% acceptable.

Day 1, hour 1. Welcome to the world, Maximus!

Look at that precious face!

Yes, he has a tiger. They are snuggle buddies.

Birds of a feather, purr together... wait what?

He is suckling my glove in anticipation of the bottle.

He is currently 390g, and eating about 11ml of  75% KMR formula every 2.5 hours. He is getting so big, so fast! We have been taking turns helping out with the feedings with includes overnights at the vet clinic on sight. The cub and his mother belong to the San Diego Zoo, so we don't know how much longer we get to keep him before they snatch him up! On Wednesday night, I helped with an overnight and got some pretty cute pictures (but let's be honest: any picture of a baby cheetah is a cute picture!). He is super cute, but sheesh, babies are exhausting!

We had a bet, to try to guess when Moyo (the mother) would stop eating (indicating that she was going into labor). Jordan guessed saturday morning, so he won. His prize was getting to name the cub. Thus, Maximus.

"His name is Maximus Decimus Meridias cuz he's clearly a gladiator ... and although he is adorable, he SHALL NOT be referred to as Cutias Maximus." - Bo

Yep. He has some pretty big shoes to fill.

He eats like a champ! Latches on, and sucks it dry.

And yes, we have to stimulate his bowels.

I can't wait until he opens his eyes! It should be any day now. And hopefully San Diego lags, and we get to keep him for a little while longer...

Hands down this is the COOLEST internship EVER.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

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