Pumas, Anteaters and Wolves

Friday night this week was Canadian Embassy night, so we spent a great evening there drinking mojitos and eating pizza. We mostly chatted with Americans some of whom came on our zoo tour a few weeks ago. We discussed that our work at the zoo is actually very similar to some of the work carried out by staff at the embassy, particularly where they are advising on business and banking. They encounter the same problems, bureaucracy and the same slow speed of change (and Ukrainian insatiable need to stamp everything with their special official stamps). During the evening there was another torrential thunderstorm and we all had to hide under the beer tent and patio-umbrellas. These seem to happen quite regularly at the moment, as the weather is so hot and humid. They generally follow the same pattern. The heat increases steadily throughout the day along with high humidity – it’s quite unbearable. Suddenly the sky will turn black and an immensely powerful wind will sweep in – so strong that it pulls leaves and branches off the trees. This is quickly followed by the sky unloading so much rain that the pavements and roads turn to rivers. All accompanied by spectacular lightening strikes and overhead thunder that makes the ground shake!
We decided to have a relatively quiet weekend, as it was another bank holiday on Monday. This time it was for Constitution Day. It was actually a bit strange, normally on the other bank holidays the streets are busy in Kyiv around the zoo, lots of street vendors and lots of traffic but it was very quiet this weekend. The zoo was still busy of course, but I’m not sure where everyone else was.
We spent Saturday and Sunday in the zoo, resting in our apartment and wandering around to see the animals.
We popped into the red river hog enclosure so Steve could measure up for some work he needs to do in there, and were happy to see that the construction department have completed the stalls in the house and the doors for the pigs to use.
The lynx enclosure is also coming along nicely, the mesh is starting to go up and the foundations for the house are going down. Over the weekend, the zoo held a public awareness/education campaign and fundraiser for our Carpathian Lynx. This is such an important thing for zoos to do, particularly when we can focus on native species.
Monday, which was bank holiday, we decided to be active and went on another adventure in the sweltering heat (when we got home at 7pm it was 34⁰C, and it had cooled down a lot). We decided to head for the “artists” area of Kyiv called Podil and we would walk up St Andrivsky’s Descent – a steep cobbled street with art and antique stalls. It didn’t take too long to get there by metro and we even managed our first ever change of metro line without too much trouble.
It’s only a short walk from the metro to where we wanted to be, but we got side-tracked with some statues, a very strange front-door and a church that Steve wanted to photograph. We also stopped at an Irish themed pub as Steve fancied a pint of Guiness. I think we have discovered the World's only Irish pub without Guiness, Murphys or Jameson Irish Whiskey!
The market has all sorts of things for sale; old clocks, general antiques, soviet memorabilia (both real and mass produced), jewellery, old books (including the first English book I have seen since being here – a Spike Milligan autobiography!), traditional clothing, handmade clothes and hats, lots of tourist items (Matryoshka dolls, Ukrainian painted wooden eggs, novelty t-shirts, fur hats, vodka glasses etc) and lots of artwork. Some of the paintings were excellent, some were painted well and some were just awful. I did particularly like a modern painting of two zebra, but for us buying art is impractical here under the circumstances. Steve and I were very restrained with our purchases, we bought four old enamel pin badges from zoos – we got Kyiv Zoo (obviously), Moscow, Leningrad and Askanya Nova.
About half way up the street, near St Andrivsky’s Church we saw a zebra skin hanging on the wall. On further inspection we found a stall nearby selling mostly sea shells, but also for sale were a wolf skin, a stuffed turtle, crocodile paws, a puma skin, an anteater skin, a kangaroo skin, a dried shark, horns from various hoof-stock and all sorts of other animal parts – unbelievable! I don’t know a huge amount yet about the animal legislation in Ukraine, but if it’s anything like the zoo legislation here then there will be no laws relating to the selling of wildlife! We saw quite a lot of fox pelts on some of the other stalls, and of course, the fur hats for the tourists.
After we had finished exploring the market we headed to Voldomyrska Hirka Park for a walk in the shade, some cool drinks and to look out across the Dnipro River. The park is at the top end of St Andrivsky’s Descent, and to get back down to a metro station we took the Funicular, the building for which is as beautiful as the metro stations. The funicular cost 1.5 gryvnas, approximately 13 pence (the metro is about 16 pence) so, whilst ludicrously cheap it is actually very poor value for money as it only goes a few 100 metres where you can travel as far as you like on the metro on one ticket!
Steve and I have taken up a Ukrainian National past-time. We are now avid sunflower seed eaters. Everywhere you go there are people selling and eating sunflower seeds. They come in their shells and you crack them open between your teeth giving a nice satisfying pop, although Steve hasn't quite mastered the technique yet judging by the amount of shell fragments all over the floor. It’s quite a slow process to eat them, but very tasty.
I am pleased to inform you that I am now able to exact my revenge on the nasty mosquitoes thanks to a large bottle of industrial strength DEET insect repellent, sent by post from Mum and Dad.

Mosquitoes – You have been warned !

Red River Hog Stalls inside House

Red River Hog Slide Door

Lynx Enclosure Mesh

Lynx Foundations Ready for Concrete

Information about Lynx

Lynx Fundraising

Strange Fountain in Podil

Some Buildings in Podil

Big Statue in Podil

Church Near Podil

Bizarre Front Door

St. Andrivsky's Church from Podil

Zebra Skin in Market

Wolf, Anteater, Puma, Snake, Kangaroo, Turtle and Shark

Fox Pelts

St. Andrivsky's Church (after going up the hill)

Funicular Track

Funicular "Station"

Stink Bomb

Over the weekend the zoo had VIP guests – the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushenko and his family. He spent a whole day in the zoo having a tour with the Zoo Director. He is apparently very pleased with the progress of the zoo and the plans to modernize. He particularly enjoyed meeting the rhinoceros. I think his visit has really spurred on the Zoo Director with our redevelopment programme.
On Monday we had a huge meeting with the Zoo Director and all the heads of departments. There are new plans underway to split the departments into smaller sections, which will allow for each section head to work closely with the keepers and the animals on their section. This will also facilitate better husbandry and enrichment which is a great development for the zoo. We then are able to define where specific skills lie and focus our conservation efforts in suitable directions. Along with this, we will start to “thin-out” the animal collection by sending animals to other zoos, giving space for more intensive management of our conservation and education based species. This is a really good decision for the future of the zoo.
Over the weekend when we were at Larissa’s dacha, I was attacked by an angry mob of mosquitoes and other nasty bitey bugs. On Monday I counted at least 47 itchy bites on my legs, most of which were having allergic reactions and making my ankles and feet swell. My current tactic, as this is a recurring problem with the local wildlife, is to take lots of anti-histamines which usually does the trick. This week I had run out of anti-histamines and needed to get some more. We have found a small pharmacy at the metro station and went there to try to buy the tablets. They sold me a small packet of Claritin for approximately £5.00. On our way back to the zoo that evening we saw a different pharmacist and thought it would be wise to have a second pack of anti-histamines. We bought a generic pack and it only cost 60p. I’m amazed at the difference in cost for what is the same tablet, but in different packaging. Anyway, the insect bites are slowing subsiding, almost to the point where I can put shoes on again!
This week the baby skunks had a much needed meeting with the vets. They had little operations to have their scent glands removed. This is good news for the visitors as up till now, the area around the skunk enclosure has been a no-go zone. The babies can’t control their glands and are like little stink-bombs that go off randomly! They are still quite smelly, but nowhere near as bad.
It’s super hot here again this week, by 9am it’s almost unbearable. We are still having trouble sleeping at night because the flat gets so hot. Someone brought a fan into the office this week, which is just lovely, so we have taken to borrowing it at night now to cool the apartment down. Hopefully sleep will be occurring now. On Wednesday we thought that there would be a big thunderstorm to cool everything down. Unfortunately we only had a few spots of rain at midday and tremendously loud thunder which just didn’t help.
The armadillos that I mentioned a few weeks ago have just moved into their new enclosure. It’s an enclosure that Steve and I didn’t build, just advised on and we are so pleased with what the keepers have done. The enclosure is where the porcupines used to live, inside the main carnivore building. The enclosure has been modified to a reverse lighting schedule, as a nocturnal exhibit as armadillos are mostly night active. They have been given a deep layer of soil and woodchips for digging and foraging and some little shelters and ramps have been made from slices of tree trunk. It looks great and should work well for these animals. I apologise for the poor photo quality and particularly for the T-shirt being worn by one of our visitors in the background. Many people wear t-shirts with slogans in English and I honestly believe that most of the time they have absolutely no idea what the slogan says. There are many extremely rude slogans, which I shall not repeat as my grandmother reads this blog!

Zoo Director and the President of Ukraine

President of Ukraine and Rhino

Baby Skunk 1

Baby Skunk 2

Armadillo

Armadillo (and visitor wearing rude t-shirt)

There is an elephant hiding in this photo

Snake in the Grass

Yesterday we went to Larissa’s dacha again, for a day of relaxing in the countryside. Larissa’s husband was also there and Galina and her fiancée Denis arrived on their huge black motorbike.
The dacha and gardens are still beautiful, there are even more flowers and many of the plants are starting to fruit. We ate straight from the garden – freshly picked raspberries, strawberries, peas, blackcurrants and cherries. The taste was just unbelievable.
Last time we were there, the lake was very high – almost to the back gate of the garden, but this time it had dropped dramatically, revealing lots of steps down to the water and a little fishing platform.
Steve and Denis started fishing almost as soon as we arrived. It took a little while but Steve caught the first fish of the day, just as breakfast was ready. We had some lovely fried eggs and beer for breakfast and Steve and I went looking for bugs. The water was just teeming with life, big fat frogs on the lily-pads, huge fresh-water mussels, thousands of snails and lots of fish. We saw a few little lizards basking in the sunshine – by about 11am the temperature was getting close to 39˚C. We even saw a snake taking a swim across the lake, hunting for frogs I’d imagine.
After this we decided to walk to the other end of the lake for a swim and to mess about in Larissa’s boat. So, we quickly pumped up the boat and Igor (Larissa’s husband) and Galina rowed away. We took a gentle stroll through the “Dacha village”, through some water meadows and along to the lake. On the way there we saw a few trees lying in the water with bite marks that look very much like beaver activity. I think historically European beaver lived in Ukraine, but have been reintroduced in recent years. We didn’t see any beavers, but it seems that there is probably some living nearby.
Galina and Igor had beaten us by boat to the swimming area, everyone enthusiastically jumped in the water for a swim. Apart from me, I was being a bit pathetic about the water temperature. I made it into the water eventually and had a great swim around. The water was actually quite warm and shallow with a lovely sandy beach.
After a while we walked further round the lake, through the water-meadows. They were full of brightly coloured flowers and smelled of garlic – there were lots of wild garlic plants growing everywhere and the scent in the heat was extremely strong. As we were walking along, I saw another large snake slithering away from our path and into the grass.
We stopped at the far end of the lake to drink some water and cool off, the heat was just phenomenal. Igor suggested that Steve should row the boat back to the Dacha, so Steve hopped nimbly in and grabbed the oars. I took a much less elegant route, fell down in the mud and crawled into the boat.
After a short while of spinning in dizzying circles, Steve eventually got the hang of the boat and we made good progress back along the lake. We stopped at the swimming beach for a break and took another dip. We had a nice chat with a man who is the manager of Boryspil airport, who told us about another airline that has just started UK flights. It’s really strange, but, lots of Ukrainians we have spoken to think that people from the UK don’t like Ukrainians and find them rude and grumpy. We have found that quite the opposite is true, people are extremely kind to us, try to help as much as possible and when we don’t know the Russian words, and they try to remember their high-school English lessons to be able to assist us. This isn’t just people at work, its people in shops, restaurants and in the streets. This is a wonderful country with very generous lovely people.
We rowed the rest of the way back to the dacha just in time for even more food. Denis grilled some mushrooms in a paprika sauce and Larissa made more traditional Ukrainian foods. We all ate far too much, but you just can’t help it when the food is so tasty.

Steve fishing and Denis in the boat

Steve swimming in the lake

Me swimming in the lake

Igor and Galina in the boat

Making hay in the water meadow

Wild garlic

We think these are beaver tooth marks

Steve rowing the boat

Denis and the long-horn beetle

Grass snake in the compost heap

Requiem

It’s been a strange week, very slow at the start with lots of paperwork but developed into quite a hectic few days at the end.
We spent a very happy afternoon playing with spiders in the Invertebrate department. This is the smallest department in the zoo, with only a very tiny display area, but actually houses the most animals of any department. They have 100s of different theraphosid spiders (tarantulas) and breed these very well. Also kept are beetles, snails, stick-insects, scorpions and lots of other lovely bugs. In this department, every staff member either has or is studying for a PhD – pretty amazing! In the invertebrate room there are a few free-ranging spiders to help clear up escaped fruit flies etc. Steve found one of these big beasties and gave it a little prod so he could see it better. The spider jumped on him to much laughter from me and the keeper as Steve went bright red and looked like a naughty school-boy!
It’s looking very likely that we will be part of an extremely important conservation programme soon. We already keep Prezwalski horses as part of a captive breeding zoo programme, but have been offered a herd of “A-Line” horses that we will breed and then these animals will be released into the wild at designated safe wildlife reserves. The release sites are mainly in Mongolia, but in the past there have been release programmes in Ukraine. It’s such a great opportunity to work with a high level conservation programme and also as they are a native species it’s really important for the zoo. Prezwalski are a wild horse species that are extremely endangered. There are only a few real species of horses e.g. Zebras (3 different species), Prezwalski, Onager and Kulan. All other horses such as Shire horses, Dartmoor ponies, Shetland ponies, race-horses etc are actually different breeds of the domestic horse, and although some horse breeds are rare, they are not endangered in the same ways as the wild horse species. Steve has been working hard to make plans to be able to have the “A-line” horses, enclosure modification, staff training and intensive husbandry protocols. We also have to move around some of the other animals at the zoo to give these special horses more space. It may mean moving some to other Ukrainian zoos, so Steve is also contacting them to see what arrangements can be made.
We seem to have got the post here figured out now, it’s generally pretty unreliable but some things manage to get through. We think that letters/packages that are franked and don’t have stamps will generally arrive. I had two such packages this week from zoos in America and Canada stuffed full of information and DVDs about elephants. Both took about 10 days to get here and a big Thank You to the people who sent them to me.
The zoo has been offered a large amount of money by an anonymous philanthropist who would like it spent on a new enclosure for some of our animals. This may sound great (and it really is) but it brings such tough decisions and lots of work with it – how do you decide which species / group of species to spend the money on? We’ve been working really hard on this, lots of meetings, discussions, looking at enclosures and areas of the zoo and still have not made a decision. I think it will take quite a while to reach a final plan.
We are nearly complete on an enclosure refurbishment for Red River Hogs. The enclosure has been empty for a long while but recently we have knocked down the old lean-to shelter, and the maintenance department have built a lovely night/winter house for the animals. We’ve also completely changed the fence line and put in viewing windows and solid fence, which is better for the visitors and the animals. It’s going to be great when it’s all completed. Red river hogs are really nice (grumpy) animals, their ears are just incredible. They are also part of a good zoo conservation programme.
Steve’s lynx enclosure is coming on well. It’s mainly the construction department working on it at the moment; Steve is just supervising the work. They are almost ready to put the mesh up, complete the off-show holding area and are putting down foundations for the animal house. Steve will be starting the electric fencing system soon. He’s worked really hard and has found a supplier in Ukraine that can get the make of electric fence equipment that Steve likes to use. Steve even managed to get at 25% discount for the zoo on the parts for this fence and all other fences in the future. It’s great, but comes with the condition that as Steve is the only qualified zoo electric fence technician in the country, he provides a consultancy service for the company and other zoos in Ukraine. So far he has made recommendations to the company on a few occasions and also spoken with other zoos about their fences.
Today (Saturday) we ventured out into Kyiv again. There’s a large art gallery called the Pinchuk Art Centre that currently has a large Damien Hirst exhibition “Requiem”. On the way there we went t a different metro station; it was just beautiful, very 1920’s art deco with incredible mosaic walls. Steve tried to take a few photos but was stopped by the train staff.
The art exhibition was really big, took up the whole gallery and an outside area also. Photos were not allowed apart from one outdoor piece. The focus of the exhibition was the skulls that Hirst is renowned for, but also a lot of animal and taxidermy artworks. There were two formaldehyde encased sharks, one of which was split into two pieces and you could walk through them (titled Death Explained). There was a piece called “A Thousand Years” that was a large Perspex container with living flies, a cows head and an “Insect-o-cutor” – very strange, the flies were buzzing around and writhing on the floor, but it’s a self-sustaining sealed system. There were some incredible pieces made from tropical butterfly wings, laid out in geometrical patterns, like cathedral windows, I could look at them forever and not get bored. Another piece I particularly liked was a fish taxidermy display that made excellent use of mirrors. I’m afraid that I just can’t do the exhibition justice with my descriptions. It was well worth spending an afternoon there and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

Spider at Invertebrate Department

Inside the Red River Hog House (stalls will be constructed soon)

Red River Hog House

Red River Hog Enclosure

Red River Hog Enclosure

Red River Hog Enclosure

Lynx Enclosure Developments

Lynx Enclosure Off-Show Holding Area

Lynx Enclosure with Foundations started

Nice Metro Station

I can't remember the title of this sculpture