Tag Archives: zoo babies

Arts & Entertainment, Film & TV

Less of The Killing, More of the Ocelot Kitty

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This week’s episode of The Killing (“What You Have Left”) featured Rosie’s funeral, further focus on her teacher Bennet as a murder suspect, and the revelation that Rosie’s dad Stan has Polish mafia ties. What, you haven’t heard of the famous Seattle Polish mafia? Anyways, Stan knows that the cops are looking at Bennet, so he offers him a ride home from the wake, no doubt to threaten him with serious bodily harm. Meanwhile, even with staffer Jamie back in the fold, Richmond’s mayoral campaign is headed further down the shitter, thanks to the candidate’s disastrous debate performance, in which he served himself up to Adams on a silver platter by bringing up Bennet’s connections to his own at-risk youth basketball program. Jamie’s right; at this point, Richmond’s identity really is “dead girl in a trunk.”

With that out of the way, let’s get to more important news: ZOO BABIES. Now that ocelot kitty Evita is three months old, she’s ready to make her official public debut tomorrow at the Woodland Park Zoo. Since her birth in January, Evita has lived in an off-view den where she could get in some maternal bonding time, while being monitored via closed-circuit cam. Some cute details: “She currently weighs 5½ pounds and is eating solid foods….According to staff, the kitten is healthy, playful, and has exceeded all of the physical and mental benchmarks. Her favorite activity is chasing her mom’s tail.”

The best times to view little Evita and mother Bella are between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. in the Tropical Rain Forest exhibit. Here’s some more photos of Evita checking out her new digs, care of the Woodland Park Zoo’s blog.

Ocelot Evita, born in January, is ready for her official public appearance. Best times to view Evita and mom are 11 am-2 pm daily in the award-winning Tropical Rain Forest exhibit. Photo credit: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo
Environment, News

In Which Kansas Steals One of Our Snow Leopards

Snow Leopard Cubs Debut Ryan Hawk 8-14-09
Snow leopards Gobi and Batu became a local sensation when they were born at Woodland Park Zoo in 2009. Here, they explore their exhibit for the first time at 3 months old. The male, Gobi, is scheduled to move to a zoo in Kan. on April 7. Photo credit: Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo

If you’re a fan of the Woodland Park Zoo‘s pair of now nearly two-year-old snow leopard cubs, hie thee to the zoo posthaste, as it’s the last few days to see the family together. The male, Gobi, is moving April 7th to Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure in Salina, Kansas. Hope he likes Applebee’s. To make matters worse, his sister Batu is leaving Seattle as well, off to Assiniboine Zoo in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Hope she likes…ummm…Guy Maddin films?

As you may recall, Gobi and Batu were born on Memorial Day in 2009. The siblings are the first and only offspring for parents Helen and Tom, so they’re going to be empty nesting pretty hard. But with the kids away, they can focus on themselves more, reinvigorate their marriage, travel, maybe take up painting. You know, snow leopard stuff.

To be sure, the juvenile snow leopards are moving under the recommendation of the snow leopard Species Survival Plan, a cooperative breeding program to ensure genetic diversity and healthy populations in North American zoos and aquariums. And yes, the departure of the snow leopards follows the natural course of young snow leopards living in the wild, who typically leave their mothers when they’re approximately eighteen months old. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. So long, kitties. Travel back in time with this video to the cubs’ first public checkup, when they were just a month old:

Off-Task

Woodland Park Zoo’s Ocelot Kitty Hates the Dentist

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SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Check out this video of the Woodland Park Zoo‘s latest zoo baby, newly-named eight-week-old ocelot kitten Evita, as she gets a health exam (and a clean bill of health) from the zoo staff. The best part: angry kitteh noises at 0:32 and the end of the clip. You mad, in the cutest way possible.

Now nearly three-and-a-half pounds, Evita was born on January 15th to ten-year-old Bella and fifteen-year-old Brazil, as part of one of the zoo’s species survival plans, cooperative breeding programs to ensure genetic diversity and demographic stability across North American zoos and aquariums. Bella and Brazil previously had a set of twin ocelot females in the fall of 2008 (video here), so they’re already experienced parents–or at least Bella is. In the wild, only the mother ocelots care for the kittens, so Bella is busy nursing and bonding with Evita in an off-view birthing den (here’s some cute closed-circuit footage), while daddy Brazil is still on display in the Tropical Rain Forest Exhibit.

To see little Evita in person, you’ll have to wait another month. The kitten is not expected to be on public view until mid- or late April.

And in other zoo baby news, today the wallaroo joey born last September ventured out of his mother’s pouch for the first time. According to the zoo, “it still spends most of its time in mama’s pouch. Optimum time to catch it out of the pouch is during feedings in the mornings and end of day, about 3:30-3:45 …with a lot of patience.”