Happy animals

I’m a tiger adopter at Edinburgh Zoo. It was a Christmas present, and an awesome one, because it means I get to go occasionally when the zoo is closed to normal people for Adopters’ Evenings. So I went along last night to a particularly non-crowded one. As a bonus, they just got a new tiger in for the breeding programme, so I got to see her, but she was hiding up on a platform. The male tiger who’s still there was prowling around his enclosure making growly noises and occasionally perching up on the highest platform hungrily watching the keeper with the bucket of meat. All the big cats (except for the lions) in Edinburgh Zoo are along the same walk, and when they do Adopters’ Evenings, one of the keepers throws bits of meat in over the tops of the enclosures so the cats will all come out instead of napping, as cats are wont to do. So all the leopards and jaguars and tigers and such walk around waiting for the meat. And they know exactly where it’s coming from. So they’re basically stalking the keeper all night.

Tibor the tiger keeping an eye on the keeper with the bucket of meat.

Anyway, I watched the cats for a while. And I got to see the binturongs, which are crazy, strange creatures with awesome big fat tails. They’re usually well-hidden, but last night one of them was just kind of sitting in full view. I went over to see the tapirs, but they were all asleep in a pile inside as usual. So then I stood and watched the rhinos eat their dinner for about 20 minutes.

Usually in zoos, you can tell which animals are pretty content. I guess it’s the nature of being in a zoo, but a lot of animals just aren’t in love with being in an enclosure, regardless of how good it is or how big it is. They pace around in the same patterns and are probably just generally a bit bored. Even if they’re happily bored (like the sea lions sometimes appear to be). But the rhinos at Edinburgh Zoo always look like they’re enjoying the hell out of themselves. There are two of them, and I think they’re brothers. The enclosure isn’t particularly enormous, but every time I go, they’re just happily going about their rhino business. One time, they were charging back and forth through an enormous puddle of thick mud, splashing everyone watching with big blobs of the stuff, and clearly having the time of their lives. Last night, they were thoroughly enjoying munching on some enormous tree branches. And it wasn’t crowded at all, so I just got to stand there on my own with the rhinos for ages. I guess that wouldn’t be too exciting for some people, but I like watching happy animals do normal stuff. Their life is easy. It calms me down. Plus, they were making some awesome smacking noises with their ears as they tried to keep the flies off. You can kind of hear it in this video I took.

I went to have a look at the penguins next so I could see all the just-hatched gentoos. You can watch them on the penguin cam. The penguins were all squawking at and chasing a crow who was trying to poke around for food. That was kind of funny. When I had enough of that, I went to try to see the skunks, which are never out, and they weren’t out last night either. I spotted the porcupines waaaaaay up in the top of a tree though. And then I went home wishing something like a tree branch would make me as happy as the rhinos.

Look at me! I'm brand new and fluffy!