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NEWS FROM THE ZOO
Here's the latest goings on at Franklin Zoo  Tommy, our cute otter, is soon to be joined by another friendly otter named Paddles. Read about it in our August Zoo Diary. |
Zoo Diary December 2007
Zoo Diary December 2007Franklin Zoo A special place.
We would like to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The zoo will be open every day so came and visit and walk off that Christmas lunch!
As the year draws to an end we say goodbye to our four Unitec students who have gained practical experience at the zoo as part of their requirements to pass the Certificate of Captive Wild Animal Management. We are very proud of Rohini, Letitia, Richard and Simon who all passed their course this year and worked very hard with study and at the zoo. We wish them the very best in their future.
A major part of our purpose is to provide ongoing care for exotic and native species that fall outside of the regions breeding programs; these include injured native animals that can not be released and exotic animals that do not have recorded bloodline histories making them unsuitable for breeding programmes.
Sam, our very well loved African serval cat, falls into this category. We are endeavouring to trace his blood line and once we can confirm his background he may be able to enter the regions breeding program. In the wild, a male serval would spend most of his time alone, so for now our main purpose is to keep him occupied and healthy.
Visitors to the zoo get the opportunity to watch Sam on his daily hunt for his food at the 2pm Wild Encounters each day. As part of his adaptations for hunting in the savannas, the serval boasts long legs (the longest of all cats, relative to body size) and large ears. The long legs and neck allow the serval to see over tall grasses, while his ears are used to detect rodents, even those burrowing underground. While hunting, the serval will pause for up to 15 minutes at a time to listen with eyes closed.
You may think Sam is just napping, but I like to think he is hunting!!
The serval's pounce is a distinctive vertical 'hop', a serval can jump and catch flushed birds up to 3m from the ground, Sam demonstrates this ability jumping for his dinner at our Wild Encounters each day, which is impressive for such an old cat.
We have a waiting list of animals due to came to the zoo, once we have resources and the enclosures prepared so we will be welcoming some new faces we will tell you more next month.
Our two major goals for 2008 are firstly to gain accreditation in to ARAZPA (Australasian Regional Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria) whose mission To harness the collective resources of zoos and aquariums to conserve biodiversity in the natural environment", is closely aligned to ours. And second is to launch our Franklin Wildlife Charitable trust to ensure the animals and birds under our care will be cared for into the future and the Zoo continues to develop as an Education resource for the region.
Remember we are open Christmas Day and New Years Day. Come and join us we are open every day 9am 5 pm with Wild Encounters every day at 2pm.
Helen, Graeme, and the team at Franklin Zoo
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| Tommy, our otter |
| Tommy, our otter, has been at the Franklin Zoo for almost 20 years. He is an Asian small-clawed otter, which usually live in a wide range of habitats where there is permanent water and some tree cover, such as freshwater wetlands, mangrove swamps and paddy fields. He loves to rough and tumble and is a great swimmer. |
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