First of all – I woke up this morning because the lions were roaring so loudly aaand the sun was out! Yesss!
And secondly… You can acutally stop reading my blog because I will probably bore you, telling you everyday how awesome, cute, powerful, gorgeous and lovely those big cats are, just using different words.
Anyway, if you have some minutes left, you’re very welcome to read on 🙂
Today was enrichment day and thus, I saw lots and lots of happy cats. They go crazy for the paper boxes filled with straw and they love to lick and hug the boxes, to carry them away and tear them into peaces. In the morning, I went on my usual tour, bringing enrichment to Andy, Seeta and Nora. I also visited the other lios on my tour. Most of them (such as Andy and Seeta) stay in adaption enclosures. Those are enclosures that are not as huge as the others are and the cats are alone in there. They stay in those smaller enclosures because they are new on Lionsrock or got kicked out of their prides, so they need to be adapted to other cats. This is not as easy as it sounds, because if they are put together and don’t get on well, they could even kill each other. So the adaption process is very important and the lions need to be monitored well during that stage. If they get on well with their neighbours, they can be put together after a while. The volunteer’s job is to observe their behaviour and reactions to the lions that stay next to them.
Nora, on the other hand, stays in a special care enclosure. She got kicked out of the big pride and her enclosure is very close to where she stayed before – so she still remains in touch with her former pride. Whenever lions feel that a cat is too old or too weak – so that it won’t be in favour of the pride anymore – they kick that one out. Only after being kicked out, Nora was diagnosed of a tumor. It was not a maligne one, and it was removed, but her former pride will not welcome her back anymore, since they feel her weakness.
Nora needs more attention now, because it’s quite hard to be alone after having been together with a big group of lions. But hopefully, she will get on well with another lion that’s alone and they can be put together.
So now you know why some of the cats have smaller enclosures or are alone. Especially those cats really need the attention of people. Not every cat loves the contact to people. But every cat loves the enrichment that people bring along. As you can see on the pictures 🙂
Good night everybody! =)
