Jaka playing
Posted on 7 May 2012
These are some amazing photos taken by one of our regular zoo visitors, David Rowe. Jaka is playing in the water with the mussel buoy which had some of his food chained to it. Photos like this really show Jakas strength when you see him effortlessly bat the buoy around. There is also another photo I really like of Jaka jumping between rocks around the pool showing his agility. Great photos David!
Fawns and Lemurs
Posted on 27 April 2012
Blackbuck fawns
We currently have two very cute blackbuck fawns. If you look carefully as you walk around the wetlands path you may be able to see them in a paddock. Every morning the keepers have to thoroughly check the paddock for new fawns as the mothers will hide them and the fawns instinctively know not to move until their mother comes and gets them. They are sometimes very hard to find.
Bruce and Julian
Bruce and Julian were recently separated from our main group of ring-tailed lemurs to prevent any breeding in the up coming breeding season. Bruce has been our breeding male and he has done a very good job, fathering five young over 3 years. Julian is one of Bruces sons and as he is now of breeding age he is keeping Bruce company in an enclosure not viewable to visitors. The species co-ordinator has recommended other unrelated males to come to Hamilton zoo for future breeding.
To catch Bruce and Julian I got them use to entering a carry cage weeks prior to the move for yummy food rewards such as raisins or grapes. This made the whole process much less stressful for them on the day of the move as they were already use to going into the cage. The alternative to this would be to catch them with a net which can be hard and more stressful for all concerned. It will take a bit of time for them to adjust to being in a new enclosure away from all the other ring-taileds.
Kune Kune piglets
Posted Wednesday 21 March 2012
Anna gave birth to eight gorgeous piglets in a variety of colours on 28 February. They are all doing well and Anna is being a fantastic first time mum. They are starting to investigate solid food but still rely on Anna for milk, drinking from her several times a day. We are giving Anna extra food to make sure she can produce enough milk to feed all those hungry mouths! The piglets also spend a lot of time sleeping, often out in the sun for hours, so we have to apply sunscreen to their delicate ears to ensure they don’t get burnt. They are however gradually becoming more active and can run very fast when they want to! In a few weeks they will be ready to go to new homes.
Piglets are sold with 100% of this money going to our Conservation Fund. As pigs are social animals they need to go to homes where they will have some company of some sort, preferably another pig but a goat or other farm animal is also suitable. If you would like to take two piglets we can offer a reduced price. There are currently five desexed males still available. Male Kune Kunes are just as friendly as females and will make great pets. Pigs will live for at least 10 years and will need a shelter, secure fenced area and a wallow or paddling pool in summer to cool off. They can be fed on household scraps and grass but will also benefit from pig pellets especially in the first few years of their life. They put on weight easily so you have to be careful not to overfeed them!
February updates
Posted Wednesday 27 February 2012
Farewell Puku
Sadly we recently said goodbye to Puku one of our Kune Kune Pigs. Ongoing health issues meant we had to humanly euthanaise Puku. Puku was around 8-years old and had three litters of piglets during her time at Hamilton Zoo. We kept two of her piglets from different litters over the years and one of them, Anna, now 4-years old, is currently pregnant with her first litter. We will be selling the piglets as pets for a donation of $50 to our Conservation Fund.
Fun times for the Alpacas
Sometimes we take our alpacas for walks around the zoo and sometimes we take them to different areas of the zoo to graze for a few hours. This is good exercise for them and also provides them with a variety of different smells and visual stimuli. Whilst our tigers had to be shut away for the construction of their new fence we took the opportunity to leave the alpacas in their enclosure to explore.
Alpacas in the browse padock
We also have a few different areas around the zoo where we grow trees to feed to the animals so we sometimes take the alpacas into these areas and let them roam freely for short periods. They enjoy eating the trees, grass and also just generally having a good time running around and rolling on the ground.
Spider monkeys to Switzerland
Two of our female spider monkeys recently left for a zoo in Switzerland to take part in a breeding program. Before their departure they had to be separated from the rest of our spider monkeys to undergo a quarantine period. They also had to be cleared of various diseases and parasites before MAF approved their departure. It was sad to see Jetta and Juanita go but it will be good for them to have the opportunity to breed and help ensure the genetic diversity of the captive gene pool of their species. It was a long journey for the two but they arrived safe and sound and in good order.
African Wild dogs
Our new female wild dog, Rukiya has now been successfully integrated with the two males. Introductions went extremely well with no aggression from any of the animals which was great for all concerned. Hopefully we will have some puppies in the next breeding season. This is them sharing half a horse head!
African Wild Dog
Posted Wednesday 18th January 2012
We recently received a new female African wild dog, Rukiya, from Wellington Zoo.
In preparation for her arrival we split up our pack of seven male dogs. Five of the boys were individually anaesthetised, crated and moved to a different enclosure on the other side of the zoo. The remaining two boys will slowly be integrated with Rukiya for breeding purposes. African wild dogs have a very complicated social system and it would be very difficult to successfully integrate Rukiya with all seven boys and there would be a possibility of her being seriously injured or even killed during the process. Hopefully all will go well with only two males to be introduced to. So far the two males have met Rukiya through mesh only.
We took the opportunity to do health checks on the five boys while they were anaesthetised. They were all individually weighed and had blood samples taken. It was discovered that a few of them will need some dental work in the near future. This photo is our vet nurse, Kylie, making notes while one of the dogs is asleep on the scales. The dogs all weighed nearly 30kg.
More babies!
Posted Wednesday 18th January 2012
We have another Ring-tailed lemur baby, this time the mother is Yetta who gave birth on Christmas Day. The father is again Bruce who is also the father of the twins born in October last year. Yetta had a single baby which is common for first time Ring-tailed lemur mothers. Yetta is being a very attentive mother, looking after who baby very well. I suspect the baby is a female.
We also have a new Cotton-topped Tamarin baby who was born on 22 December. The parents, Florence and Lucas are very experienced in raising young and the baby is doing well. This is the last time that these two are allowed to breed as their genes are now considered well represented so Florence has been put on a contraceptive. The tiny baby is often carried by dad, Lucas which is common for tamarins, only going back to mum to drink milk. The other older siblings will also take turns to carry the baby once it gets older which will be great experience for them should they be in a breeding situation at some stage in the future.
Ring-tailed Lemur babies!
Posted Monday 14th November 2011
On 10 October one of our female ring-tailed lemurs, Rachel, gave birth to twins. Rachel is an excellent mother, taking very good care of her babies. She has had practice at looking after two babies at once because in August 2010 she also gave birth to twins – Josie and Julian. Josie and Julian, now just over 1 year old, are taking turns in looking after their little brothers which is a great experience for them.
For the first 3 weeks Rachel was very protective of the new babies and would not let any other lemurs carry them even though they were all very interested in the new arrivals and would sometimes try to take them from Rachel. In around the third week, Josie was sometimes seen carrying one of the babies. After a month, Rachel now lets any of the other lemurs carry the babies. She is probably glad to get a break from them occasionally! Bruce, the father of both sets of twins is the only one of the group who does not seem to be interested in the babies at all. Since female lemurs are dominant over male lemurs he may actually get told off by the girls if he gets too close to the babies!
The two new twins are starting to spend short periods of time on the ground exploring which is very entertaining to watch. They are also investigating solid food but are not really able to eat it and still rely on Rachels milk for all their nutrition. They spend a lot of their time drinking from her, in between sleeping and short periods of play!
Keeping cool this summer
Posted Friday 24th December 2010
A very important part of being a zoo keeper in this hot weather is to make sure our animals are kept cool. There are various ways of doing this depending on the animal. The majority of our primates enjoy fruit iceblocks which are made up with items from their usual daily diet, e.g. apples, banana. Sometimes the water can be sweetened with honey as well. The iceblocks can be frozen with a chain in them so we can hang them in the monkey's enclosure and they can lick them as they melt during the day.
The carnivores enjoy iceblocks of a different kind - blood! Some of our carnivores also like to swim so we provide them with pools to cool down in.
The rhinos and pigs have their mud wallows which we make sure are kept topped up with water during summer. Our pregnant kune kune pig Crackle is spending a lot of time in her wallow at the moment. She is due to have piglets any day now and is very large and uncomfortable.
The alpacas are due to have their annual haircut which will make them a lot cooler but in the mean time we turn a sprinkler on for short periods which Pablo in particular likes to spend time under. Of course we are mindful of water conservation whilst ensuring the animals' welfare needs are met.
Our resident hand-raised Pukeko called Puke (pronounced Pooky) has his own bird bath. Puke is a very spoilt Pukeko. He is getting quite old now and every morning at 8am he will arrive at the building where the keepers prepare all the animals' food and demand his breakfast. he will also turn up at other times during the day for more food and a bath.
Jaka Smelling Perfume
Posted Thursday 20th May 2010
One way of enriching our tigers lives is through using a variety of different scents in their enclosure. Tigers have a very strong sense of smell and therefore respond well to this type of enrichment. In particular, Jaka and Mencari love lemmon pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon sprinkled in different locations.
They also love perfume! The video above is of Jaka rubbing on a sack that I sprayed with Charlie Red perfume. We sometimes use different faecal matter from hoofstock at the zoo, such as rhino or giraffe, and put this in the tiger enclosure. The tigers don't usually roll around in this, but it is one way of altering their enclosure and giving them something different to smell from day to day.
Tigers primarilly use their sense of smell to locate prey such as wild pigs and deer.
Jaka Eating
Posted Saturday 24th April 2010
Spider Monkey Weighing Time!
Posted Wednesday 21st April 2010
Here at Hamilton Zoo, we endeavour to weigh all our animals on a regular basis which is one way to ensure that they are healthy. Some animals are easier to weigh than others! We have a troop of 12 spider monkeys and they all have different personalities - some are confident and some are shy - just like people.
I am still working on being able to weigh every individual spider monkey. It is a gradual process getting the animal used to standing (or sitting!) on scales. Some of the shy monkeys still find the scales scary and won't come near them.
The spider monkey on the scales in the picture above is called Bodie and her current weight is 7.8kgs. The monkey in the background is Bodie's little sister - Besede - and her current weight is 8kgs.
Interesting Feeding Time for Akida
Posted Wednesday 21st April 2010
This is Akida, our male Serval. In order to make feeding times a bit more interesting for the carnivores we often put their food in challenging places, like up in a tree for example. The picture above is of Akida stretching out to reach a piece of meat in a tree.
Other times we put their meat inside other objects, like in this box! Akida is investigating inside this box to see if there is anything tasty in there for him.
The Pigs Day Out!
Posted Sunday 14th March 2010
The photo above is of three of our Kune Kune pigs - Crackle, Chiquita and Anna. They are out for a walk in the Sumatran Tigers enclosure. While the tigers were safely locked away in their dens we took the pigs into have a look at their enclosure. The pigs loved eating all the yummy grass and left lots of interesting smells behind for the tigers to investigate. Once all the keepers and pigs were safely out of the enclosure, the tiger was let back out again. This is enrichment for both the pigs and the tigers.
When our male Sumatran tiger - Jaka - was let back out of his den he ran around trying to find the pigs. He smelt the ground where the pigs had been (see photo above) and looked in the bamboo to see if they were hiding there. After all that hard work he then had a cool off in the pool!
Alpaca Enrichment
Posted: Saturday 13th March 2010
This is Tyson (black) and Pablo (white) enjoying some enrichment. The treat dispensing balls have small pieces of apple and carrot in them which fall out when the Alpacas move the balls around with their noses! As the Alpacas diet is mainly hay, the apple and carrot are a special treat for them.
No two zebras have stripes that are exactly alike.
