Zoo News Sunday, lots of babies and a few other things

Zebee the roving zoo reporter here. I hope all of you are having a great weekend. If you live in the US, Happy Labor Day!

Today we have lots more babies and some good news from the Phoenix zoo. Enjoy!

Monkeying around at the Budapest Zoo
Have you ever heard of a Javan Iangur? What type of animal is it? You will learn about them here and even get to see pictures..

Zoo’s vampire bat colony adds 3rd baby since June
Baby bats, vampire bats at that. Three have been born at the Little Rock Zoo. Learn more about the flying creatures in this article.

Hazina looks forward to earning her stripes
New okapi birth at the Marwell Zoo. Click on the video link to watch the birth of little Hazina. She sure is a cutie.

Geri Newest Charmer At Zoo
A baby bonobo at the Columbus Zoo. What is a bonobo? Check it out here.

Louisville Zoo's New Amur Tiger Sasha Steals The Show
New tiger at the zoo. What’s his favorite toy?

Phoenix Zoo has storm damage; no animals hurt
Good news for Phoenix that the storm didn’t do more damage.

Big, BIG News at the Houston Zoo
The Houston Zoo just got two new elephants. See a picture of them here.

Rare civet albino cat comes to Lucknow zoo
What is a civet? Where is the Lucknow Zoo? A civet is a type of cat and Lucknow is in India. Read how the zoo got the cat.

After success in Chicago, Fort Worth Zoo’s Komodo dragon is headed home
I think it’s cool that zoos loan their animals to other zoos. Read about Faust’s time away from home and what home has planned for him now.

Well, that’s it for today. See you Tuesday with more news from the ‘V Zoo’. In the meantime, have a great day.

Tiger Walk !?!

Zebee here. It’s early here at the ‘V Zoo’ and everyone is sleeping. I should be too after the night we had here.

When Elvis was doing his rounds last night, it was Hania the tigresses turn. See, Elvis doesn’t get out much these days. He’s taking turns on parent duty with Elvin. Anyway, Hania is a very gentle tigress, but she is still after all a tiger.

So, Elvis lets her out and she decides she wants to take a stroll around the zoo. She sets off in the direction of the Petting Zoo. Mind you, all the goats and sheep in there are sleeping, well, at first. One of them, Suzie, wakes up, sees Hania and starts bleating. LOUD! She wakes up the whole zoo.

Haina paid no attention. Elvis on the other hand is begging Hania to go back to her exhibit. She tells him in no uncertain terms that she is going to walk around the zoo since she has never been able to do it before. What can Elvis do? He’s no match for her if she decides to get nasty, so he just flies along side her.

Okay, she walks past the Petting zoo and goes over to the giraffe exhibit. She tells Elvis that she’s always been fascinated by giraffes and wants to meet Honey, Star and Jewel. Elvis doesn’t want to upset Hania, so he goes in and gets the giraffes. Needless to say, the trio is scared.

When Honey, who is the bravest of the three, came over to the fence, Hania told her how beautiful she thought giraffes are and would like to be friends. Honey ran back and told the others, who then came to the fence and the four of them had a nice chat.

By the time they were done, Elvira was calling Elvis to come home, so, he convinced Hania to go back to her exhibit.

Well, I think this event showed lots of us here at the zoo that just because a particular species of animal has a reputation for being fierce and scary, they can be gentle and a great friend.

That’s all for today, I’m going home and back to get some sleep. See you Thursday.

The ongoing adventures of Elvis

Last time we checked in with Elvis, he’d been having a wild time opening all the exhibits in preparation for the ‘big event’. I wonder how many he’s opened so far and how it’s going. Let’s go ask him.

Hey Elvis! The people in Bloggerville and I want an update on your night openings. Can you fill us in? How many have you opened? Any more escapes like Billy? Can I go with you on your next one?

Whoa! One question at a time Zebee. I know you and all the people out there are curious, so I will answer all your questions. Let’s see, so far I’ve opened Lito’s, the giraffes, Jabari the leopard’s, of course Billy the chimp’s, the bongos, kudus and tiger exhibits. Oh I almost forgot, I also looked at the Polar Bears and Penguins to figure out how I’m going to do that one. I think I’ve figured it out, but I need some help with these, so yes, Zebee you can go with me.

Great! When do we go? Tonight?

Let me check with Elvira. Now that she’s laid her egg, she wants me around at night. I haven’t gone out in a while, so maybe it will be okay. I’ll let you know.

Any more escapes, or is everyone behaving?

Jabari was a bit annoyed when I tried to get him out. He was in the middle of his nightly prowl and didn’t want to be disturbed. The giraffes were all a twitter and hard to keep quite, but the rest were really good about it. Everyone is excited and can hardly wait.

Okay Elvis, let me know if we are on for tonight. Bye for now.

Will do. Bye Zebee.

Zoo News! Zoo News! Read all about it!

Today I found all kinds of neat zoo news from around the country. Oh, I got so excited I forgot to tell you that Zebee is still off ‘on assignment’, so I am playing roving reporter today. Lets’ get right to it.

First we have The Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa working out a new program to get teens involved. They have a ‘zoo school’ and lots more. Cool!
Zoo Program Targets Teens

Next we have some baby news. First, baby meerkats, how cute are they. I don’t know about you, but, I find them adorable.
Baby meerkats to make zoo debut

More babies. This time they are 5 count them 5 baby tigers. Their mom must be very busy.
5 endangered tiger cubs born at Saint Louis Zoo

More tiger news. Look who’s getting two new tigers.
Zoo to get rare tigers

Whew! I guess that’s enough for today. Happy reading.

Tiger Enrichment?!?

Wow! Rebekha and Sally are getting very brave! They are talking about going into the tiger exhibit to do some new type of enrichment idea. I wonder what it will be. Let's listen in and find out.

"So, Sally, are you with me on this one?"

"Sure Rebekha. Sounds interesting."

"Oh, it will be a piece of cake. I'll make sure that Tilly and Zeus are in the barn when we go into their exhibit."

"Okay, that sounds much better. So, what scents are we going to try out? Perfumes or animal scents?"

"I think we'll start with perfume. We need to be sure we spray it right at the level that Zeus would typically 'mark' the tree with his scent. This way, he will notice it and studies show that animals will rub up against the area."

"I'm curious to see how Zeus and Tilly react to this. What perfume are you going to use? A 'manly' scent or a woman's perfume?"

"Let's try one of each and see which one they like best. Okay, are you ready? Let's go!"

So, what do you think Zeus and Tilly will do? You can weigh in on this by answering the survey today or dropping us a comment.