Soo here I am again…I have to catch up a little, since yesterday evening I didn’t make it anymore…There was a BBQ for the workers who build the new tiger enclosure (on May 8th, six new tigers are arriving, this is gonna be awesome!) and Natasha and I were invited too. It got a little late and after eating pap and sauce with sausages, Natasha, Elke, Islam and I sat down at the fire and had some glasses of wine and a really nice talk. That’s how my day ended…Now let me tell you how it started.
Friday is feeding day, so Johannes and two other animal keepers picked me up to go to the workshop. I have never seen so much beef at once! A Lion eats 35-40 kg beef per week, whereas for example Martin, the Sibirian Tiger, eats 50kg per week. Most of the meat is donated by local farmers. The dead animals are brought to lionsrock, where they are cut at the workshop. And that’s where I met the cows yesterday morning. Heads and legs and ribs and stuff. Huh that smelled pretty bad. The animal keepers put predator powder on the meat, which contains vitamins and minerals. Free big cats get them when they eat organs such as the heart or liver of their prey. Since on Lionsrock, the cats don’t get to eat those organs, they need the powder.
The guys loaded the meat on the pick up and we drove to the different enclosures. After having put the meat into the feeding enclosures, one animal keeper opens the drop gate and the big cats jump at the meat. It’s so impressive to see those powerful cats running into the enclosure and getting their piece of meat! I could watch them eating all day…
We did the adaption enclosures, the big prides, the tigers and the special care unit and then we had lunch. I was really hungry after having seen the cats eating the whole morning. After lunch, we also fed the leopards, caracals, hyenas and some more lions and tigers.
Well, yesterday was a real meat day. Beef for the lions during the day – BBQ in the evening for us.
