Zoo Centenary

It’s been manically busy this week, so much to do and nowhere near enough time. My week hasn’t been helped by a massive migraine necessitating a day off on Thursday. I had been free of migraines for over six months, which is pretty amazing but I guess having another one was inevitable.
Steve has been completing areas of the lynx enclosure this week. The main house is finished and fully furnished for the lynx, the electric fence work is finished apart from one little section where we are still waiting for a few components and the secondary enclosure is ready now. There are still a few bits that Steve wants to do, to make the enclosure look really good, but it’s more or less done now.
As the only part of the lynx enclosure awaiting completion is the main area, it meant that our beautiful Carpathian Lynx Ricki could be moved to her new home. She’ll remain in the house and secondary enclosure until she has become accustomed to her new surroundings, which should coincide nicely with the completion of the main enclosure. We scheduled her move to be done at the same time as her veterinary health check. We needed to ensure that she was in good health for the move and that she will be ready for the male lynx to arrive early next year. The vets gave her an anaesthetic for the health check and then brought her to the new home. Her keepers settled her in with a nice big fluffy bed of straw to keep her warm as she recovered from the anaesthesia.
I’ve had a bit of a strange week with the elephant, he’s been fine, but it’s just been a bit odd.

The week started with one of our elephant keepers coming into the training session and saying “pussy cat” to me over and over again. He doesn’t speak English, and my Russian still isn’t too good. I explained to him that I have a cat and I quite like cats, but that wasn’t it. He wanted me to go with him to the elephant office where he showed me a small pretty cat, which he then tried to give me. He was quite insistent about it, but I politely declined. I think two young cats in our apartment would just be too much!
It was decided this week that Boy would have access into his house at night, not just the shelter as he previously used at night. This meant a rush to get it ready for him and a lot of noise and people in the elephant house, which disturbed and confused him during his training sessions. On a couple of days he was completely disinterested in training, and on another day he trained but collected all his rewards together and didn’t eat them until the end of the session. I think he also missed me on Thursday when I was having a migraine. Steve went to do the training and Boy worked well with him, but he works hardest with me.
A lot of animals have moved house this week as well as the lynx and elephant. The keepers have been really busy getting the winter accommodation ready for the animals as apparently the temperatures will be falling very quickly and very soon. The mongooses, coatis and a lot of birds were moved this week and the primates will be moving as soon as they have new ropes and wood-chip substrates ready for them.
The heating did eventually come on this week, which is really nice, and the cat is appreciating it greatly. I’m not sure it’s really cold enough to necessitate it during the day, but at night it’s lovely.
Kyiv Zoo celebrated its 100th anniversary this week, and we have had all sorts of events to commemorate this centenary. Over the past month we have been inviting children to submit art and photographs of the zoo animals for a competition. I was asked to be on the judging panel for this contest. There were so many pictures and some were absolutely amazing. I decided that my judging wouldn’t be for the best picture but one that showed the child had worked really hard and thought about what they were doing. One of the pictures I voted for really wasn’t good, but the child who drew it had been to the zoo and had copied our distinctive signposts and benches in their picture, and I really liked that. It took ages to get through all the pictures and categories, but was very good fun.
On Saturday we had the official celebrations, overseen by the Mayor of Kyiv and other dignitaries. I have never seen the zoo so full of visitors – everyone wanted to join in our celebrations. There were speeches, loads of activities for the children, gifts for all the major animal sponsors, a charity auction and a great big birthday cake, shared by all our visitors!
All the zoo staff were given a salary bonus, a commemorative book about the zoo and a very limited edition coin as a thank you from the city authorities.
It was an amazing day and at the end of it, Steve and I were told that we have been chosen for awards from the Mayor for our services to conservation and animal welfare in Ukraine. Pretty incredible!

One of the vets with the anesthetised lynx

In the new lynx house

Awake after the anesthetic

Me and an inflatable elephant at the Zoo Birthday

Zoo Birthday Sign

Children's art competition entries

Masha's son and Steve playing with bubbles

Lots of important people

Zoo Birthday Cake

Hose-pipes and trees

It's mostly been quiet for us this week, but we have had a few intense moments.

On Thursday evening, Steve and I were just leaving the zoo offices and looked out the window to see what Boy (the elephant) was up to. He was reaching out of his enclosure to pick grass to eat, which he does from time to time. As we watched, we realised something wasn't quite right. The elephant had been in a bit of a mischevious mood all day (he'd been stealing sticks from me during our training sessions). We could see him picking up something with his trunk that definitely was not grass or plants. He'd got hold of a hose-pipe. How it got there, we just do not know. As we watched, he pulled the hose-pipe into his enclosure and started swinging it round his head. Steve made a mad dash down the stairs and to the elephant enclosure. I followed and headed for the veterinary centre, which is just next to the elephant house. We all converged on the elephant enclosure just as Boy was trying to taste if the hose pipe was good to eat. Steve and the vets convinced Boy to drop the pipe and not eat it. We lured him to the far side of the enclosure with all his favourite foods and Steve was able to retrieve all the pieces of hose-pipe.

We don't know how the hose-pipe happened to be within reach of Boy, but you have to be so careful around zoo animals. There have been many cases in the past where animals have ingested items that have made them either very sick, or in a few tragic cases has killed them. Sometimes the items are given to the animals by the visitors, or zoo staff occasionally make mistakes. We were so lucky this time, and Boy is fine, but definitely a big lesson for all staff here at the zoo.

After all that excitement, Steve decided that he just needed to get out and do some physical work in the lynx enclosure. We're getting close to completion now and our gorgeous lynx will be moving in soon. The task Steve had in mind involved most of the zoo staff, a fork-lift truck and a huge tree trunk. Steve wanted the tree trunk to be lifted up onto an old tree stump creating a ramp for the lynx to run up and down. With everyone working together, they gradually lifted the trunk in place and it looks amazing! Photos are below.

It's still cold here and the heating rumours turned out to be just rumours. Larissa says that the heating will be on by the 15th of October, but I'm not so sure now. It's actually much colder inside than outside, so working outside is the way forward this week and wearing all my clothes when I'm inside will keep me nice and warm. Steve bought me some amazing huge hand-kintted woolly socks in the market last week - excellent timing!

Massive tree in position

From another angle

It will look amazing with the lynx running up and down the tree

Rhino just getting up after a roll in the mud

Rhino after having turned over to get her other side muddy

Armadillos, Elephant and Olly

Since Thursday this week, we’ve had a visitor – Steve’s friend Olly has come to stay. As always, it’s really nice to see people here and show them the zoo and the sights of Kyiv. We’ve taken a few days off work so we can get out of the zoo for a while. That said, we’ve still been to a few important zoo meetings, I’ve still been training the elephant and we had a weekend of visitor activities that I’ve had to be involved in as it was my idea.
It was World Animal Day on Sunday, so I planned a series of enrichment workshops for the visitors over the weekend. The idea being that the visitors would bring along some items from our lists, and then work with the keepers and zoologists to transform their items into activities for the animals. The event has been really successful and the zoo staff were amazing.
On Saturday we made enrichment for the coatis, skunks and tigers. The coatis and skunks had cardboard tubes and boxes filled with their favourite foods, and pinecones rolled in honey and seeds. The baby coatis loved it and the visitors were really happy. Igor, our head keeper/zoologist for small mammals has a very good rapport with the visitors and there were so many children able to have a go at making the enrichments. One child wanted to follow Igor round all day and was trying to push his wheel-barrow for him! Masha (zoologist for big cats) did the tiger enrichment. The children all got a box and put scents (perfume and spices) on the boxes so the tigers could use their sense of smell. Masha also gave the tigers a huge pumpkin which they played football with.
On Sunday we started with fruit trees for all the parrots and macaws – children hung pieces of fruit on branches which the keepers then took into the enclosures for the birds. Igor did armadillo enrichment, which was extremely popular with the visitors. I learnt that the Russian word for armadillo is the same word as for Battleship! I then did elephant enrichment which was cardboard boxes again. Each child got a cardboard box; they could write a message for the elephant on the box or draw a picture. We then put an apple or carrot into each box and the keepers took all the gift-boxes to the elephant. It was really busy as the elephant is an extremely popular animal at the zoo. I think the whole weekend went well, we gave lots of press interviews about the zoo, enrichment and world animal day. Very successful and lots of fun!
The temperatures here have suddenly dropped this week; it’s really starting to get cold - I’ve had to stop wearing shorts and put on a jumper. Everyone has said that the weather has been very good this year, and stayed hotter for longer – I think that’s why there has been such a sudden change. It’s very cold at night now but I think that the city will turn on the heating later this week. All the central heating is controlled by the city authorities here. It goes on in October and stays on until about March. In the apartment buildings if one person doesn’t pay their heating bill, the heating for the whole block is switched off until they pay. I’d guess that you really don’t want to be the person who hasn’t paid. Ours will be ok, except there’s no option to turn the temperature up or down, it will just be on the maximum setting all winter! The keepers are starting to get prepared for winter – getting all the indoor accommodation ready for the animals. A lot of our animals will stay in all winter, but this year it will be a little bit different. We have decided that on days when it isn’t a lot below freezing, or isn’t snowing, the animals will be able to have supervised outdoor access to let them get some fresh air and have their indoor areas refreshed e.g. new ropes and substrates for the primates. We’ll have to be very careful how long they go out for, but it will be good for them. The elephant keepers have told me that they want to build snow sculptures for the elephant to play with outside!
Steve and Olly have been out exploring Kyiv this week (getting lost and finding lots of different places to drink some beer!), which has been really good and given me a chance to catch up on emails etc. and just have a bit of time to myself.

One of our lovely baby lions in the sunshine

Olly trying on a hat in Podil market

Steve wearing Olly's new hat

World Animal Day Enrichment Schedule

Igor showing children how to make armadillo enrichment

Making elephant enrichment

Elephant looking for all his boxes

Opening boxes to get his carrots

Olly's present to the elephant

Lots of visitors watching the elephant open the presents they made

Elephant with Olly's present

Lots of elephant presents