Paradise's brand new wolf experience has arrived!

On Saturday the 7th of September here in Paradise Wildlife Park we had a very lucky group of people who were used as guinea pigs for our latest animal experience, the Meet the Wolves Experience. It's an early start for this experience so the trial group had to be in the park at 8:30am. This early start time will allow visitors to get the best interaction with the wolves.

 

The trial group were greeted by our keepers Pia and Ricky in the Discovery Centre and were taken to the meat room where the food is prepared. Despite only being a trial run of the experience both Pia and Ricky didn't hold back on their knowledge, they continually told the group lots interesting facts about the wolves. This is something that all our keepers here in Paradise do really well and it gives all of our experiences an extra level of depth.

Following the meat room, the group walked over to our two older female wolves, Misha and Tatra. There is a year between the two of them; Tatra had been raised alongside an Alsatian, which means she has a lot calmer, more people friendly personality than her sister Misha.

After meeting the two girls through the mesh, the group of guinea pigs then headed over to our brand new enclosure in the Paradise woods to meet our other three wolves, Romulus, Inga and Anya. These youngsters have been with us for around a year and they arrived at six weeks old. Despite that seeming young, it's actually very late to start socialising them with people. So the keepers spent an incredible 7 months with them 24 hours a day, sleeping with them in their house and everything. Only a few people were chosen to be in their 'pack'. And the wolves still have a very strong connection with that group.

The new enclosure has been fraught with problems during the construction, but we at Paradise are pleased to say it's been worth the wait. The behaviour of the wolves changed dramatically when they were released into their new home, and they seem very happy, calm and relaxed.

Unlike with the two older girls, it's possible for the public to go in with the youngsters. Largely thanks to the hard work the keepers put in with them in the early days. Despite the reassurances of safety, it's an exhilarating experience as you're always fully aware that you're in free contact with wild animals. 

The group filed into the main enclosure, one by one, through the metal 'airlock' system and then sat on the bench just inside. The wolves came straight up to the group and immediately began sniffing them. The group had been advised not to wear perfume or aftershave. These strong smells can lead the wolves to being over-interested in our visitors, if this where to happen then it would lead to the experience coming to an abrupt end due to safety reasons. But all was fine and the wolves spent quite a lot of time with the group being very interested and attentive. Then after a while, they began to lose interest and retreated to the back of their enclosure. 

This was the groups cue to leave the enclosure and to circle round the outside. The best part of the trial experience was yet to come, as the group were now able to hand feed the wolves through the mesh. For obvious reasons, it's not a good idea to do this in free contact. Therefore all of our feeding experiences with our larger predator animals here at Paradise are fed through the mesh enclosures for safety. 

That said, the wolves were incredibly gentle when being fed by the group. The wolves were fed a mixture of horse meat and their favourite, sardines. Strangely, from time to time, the wolves would reject a piece of meat for no obvious reason. Often, one of the siblings would happily take the same piece. After the feed was finished, the wolves ran around their enclosure in an excited fashion, raising their tails. This is brilliant natural behaviour and shows how happy and settled the pack is here in Paradise Wildlife Park.

The feedback from our group of guinea pigs was extremely positive. They described it as a brilliant experience and they'd highly recommend it to anyone, Wolf lover or not.

This educational, exciting and enjoyable experience will be one you remember forever. The experience is now able to book on our website at:  http://www.pwpark.com

Below you can see a photograph of the three younger wolves when they first arrived at Paradise, only 6 weeks old. As you can see they have grown up quite a lot since their arrival.

Moving the two Amur Tiger sisters

In Mid-September a team of staff from Paradise Wildlife Park and Wildlife Heritage Foundation were involved in the exciting and nerve racking process of moving two big cats.

Sisters Siberia and Alina were the two Amur tigers to be moved. Born only last year, they are already somewhat famous, having featured on the TV show, Nature's Newborns. The two girls were from an original litter of four, but sadly the runt of that litter didn't make it through the first 24 hours. However the three remaining female cubs survived and as pure-bred Amur's they will play a vital role in the breeding and reintroduction program. Only two of the three cubs would be coming to Paradise, and the decision over who it was to be was actually made by themselves. The two boldest cubs came into the house when called, and the cub that most heavily relied on her mother Ronja, was the one that stayed with her.

The move had been largely thought out, moving the two Tigers from Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent, to Paradise Wildlife Park in Hertfordshire. They were destined to share an enclosure with Paradise favourite, Rocky the hybrid tiger. Predominately cats aren't tranquilised for transporting, instead they are gradually trained to go into the movement crates of their own accord and travel fully awake. But in this case, it was necessary to perform some important health checks and vaccinations, so to keep the stress to a minimum for the animals, we combined all of the activities together. Follow the story through the photos and captions below...

There was a great deal to be done before the process could began. This was one of the crates used for the move. They are purposely small to reduce the free movement of the cats during transit to reduce the risk of injury.

World renowned big cat expert and world leading authority on big cat medicine and conservation, Dr John Lewis preparing the anaesthetics and paperwork ready for the move. John is a member of the IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group, veterinary advisor to the Amur leopard and tiger Endangered Species Breeding Programme (EEP), a range of felid and primate field conservation programmes, a trustee of the UK based charity AMUR and is widely published on veterinary aspects of non-domestic medicine.

In order to keep the stress minimal. John asked us to stay outside for the first procedure with Alina as her sister Siberia was in the adjacent enclosure. Here you can see Alina being carried out first having had all her checks completed.

John and Zoo keeper Aaron Whitnall from Paradise Wildlife Park check on Alina as she is carefully placed into her crate.

Alina is safely into the crate, the team keeps a close eye on her breathing.

To make identifying the two new Tigers easier for our keepers at Paradise Wildlife Park, photos of their faces are used to show their unique eyebrow markings and distinguish them apart.

John administers the stimulant to bring Alina out of the anaesthetic.

The team were stationed around to keep a close eye on her breathing and track her progress. There was a terrifying moment when she appeared to have stopped breathing. But she soon started again. It's common for cats to hold their breath when wakening from a sedative. But John wasn't taking any chances. In the event that she had stopped breathing, a tube would have been inserted into her nostril and she would have been helped along in a similar way to a person.

Alina came around with ease and the outer case for the crate was put in place.

She was then carried to the van where it was dark and quiet.

 

As you can see she's not light so it takes a whole team of people to move her carefully to the van.

Then it was Siberia's turn, she could tell something was up, however she remained calm throughout.

John calmly and quietly walked in with the dart gun, hiding it behind his back so as not to cause distress to Siberia.

It took just a few minutes for the sedatives to take effect.

As soon as it was safe to do so John began the examination on Siberia.

Becky from the Wildlife Heritage Foundation checks Siberia's microchip against her records.

John takes a photo of Siberia's eyebrow markings to compare with Alina's.

Checking for any dental problems.

John checks Siberia for any heart mumours using a stethoscope, this is a common problem with Amur tigers.

Checking her claws and pads.

Amazingly John is able to perform an ECG on Siberia using an iPhone. Can you believe there is an app for that? Wow!

After the examination, Siberia is lifted into her crate.

John answered some questions for the students and volunteers who were present.

Tightly wedged in, the crates are unable to move during transit.

We arrive back Paradise Wildlife Park in the pouring rain. The Keepers and Zoo staff help unload the girls.

The crate is then safely put up against the entrance to their new house.

It's then a waiting game for the Tigers to get enough confidence to leave the crate on their own.

Finally out of the crate, Siberia settled down quickly.

And that was it, the end of a very tiring day and successful day for all the team member and the Tigers.

The girls are currently settling into their new environment. Rocky isn't sure about them just yet. But he'll no doubt get used to them soon enough. They'll be apart for at least 30 days before a gradual introduction process is begun. We will keep you posted on the developments!

**UPDATE

Rocky and the girls have been introduced! And they're getting on brilliantly. As you can see from the photo below!