MissouriGreen

The St. Louis Zoo is a favorite place of mine, but the web site for the Zoo doesn't provide all the back stories to the animals. Or at least, not as many as I would like.

Happily, I spotted a story on the Amur Tiger cubs' father, Khuntami by Dr. Jeffrey Bonner, in St. Louis Today—the latest in a year long series on the Zoo. I asked the St. Louis Today for links to the other articles, and the site was kind enough to link the others in.

This is a wonderful series, which I now see is also linked more prominently at the Zoo site. What I especially like about the series is that it focuses on the Zoo's conservation efforts, rather than the "entertainment" items, so many other zoos feature so prominently. For instance, the Amur tiger cubs are winners with the public, true. How could they not be? What's more important, though, is that the Amur tiger is one of the rarest cats in the world, and these five tiger cubs are especially critical for the program to save this endangered cat. The cubs' father, Khuntami, was born in the wild, and orphaned as a cub. His genetic contribution to the Amur Tiger breeding program has been invaluable in the desperate attempt to save this beautiful cat.

But yeah, OK, they are cute little buggers.

More St. Louis Zoo photos.

Earlier this week I made a mid-day visit to the zoo to see our five newest St. Louis citizens: the five new Amur (Siberian) tiger cubs. They're only allowed out a couple of hours a day, but in that time they manage to cover ever inch of their not small habitat at least a dozen times.

The habitat is viewed from above, as the side view is blocked by the zoo train. Needless to say, the numbers of people were many and access to get a clear photo, limited. However, you don't have to have a good photo when you're taking pictures of tiger cubs.

A welcome break from the flooding occurred Saturday, June 14th, when one of the giraffes at the St. Louis Zoo gave birth to a baby in front of about 400 surprised zoo goers.

I wasn't there that day, but did go out the following Tuesday to take photos, including this one of mother and son.

The giraffes are in one of the mixed species habitats, sharing the space with a couple of gazelles and an ostrich. The other critters weren't sure about this new stranger in their space, but the ostrich, in particular, would follow the baby around.

The ostrich became a little too aggressive and a little too close and the mother giraffe moved alongside of the bird and kicked her legs straight out to the side, pushing the bird away from the baby. The bird wasn't hurt, but did get the message.

I walk at the St. Louis Zoo early in the mornings a couple of days a week. If I get there early enough, I beat both the crowds and the heat. It's an interesting place to visit, too, in the early mornings.

This week I reached the Red Rock region of the zoo just as the keepers were cleaning some of the habitats. In the Antelope Yards, the zoo creates mixed species habitats, typically combining one or two hoofed animals and a couple of different kinds of non-competitive birds. Big birds, too. In a couple of the exhibits, the birds are the largest animal.

When the keepers clean the habitats for some of the smaller animals, they don't remove the animals or the birds. I've never seen more than one keeper at a time cleaning, either. However, in my last walk, as I reached the second of the Speke's Gazelle habitats, I noticed two people cleaning rather than one. A few minutes watching and I discovered why.