So Tuesday we got to spend a little time in the Cheetah Department and watch them do a voluntary blood draw on Sanurra. That means we were able to a blood draw without anesthetizing her. She has been trained to lay in a special chute and allow us to take blood from her tail vein while she is getting treats. This is the ultimate goal with all our training, being able to perform behaviors that allow us to give better care to our animals. Sanurra is one of our hand raised cheetahs so we can interact with her closely like this. We are doing weekly blood draws on her to ascertain her hormone levels and we will hopefully be able to tell whether or not her AI took and she is in fact pregnant. Even if she is not pregnant reviewing her levels on a weekly basis will be a great help to the ongoing study of AI in cheetahs.
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| Anna sitting in to help Benji |
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| Sanurra getting her treats from Michelle |
Not much else of note happened over the next few days, but we did receive some rhea and goose eggs from the Ungulate Department which we dyed some fun colors for Easter. Pictures to come soon. Enjoy some shots of the bears this week :)
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| Oso being sleepy |
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| Mak and Victor enjoying their boxes |
The adult black bears are waking up more and more!
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| Just soo sleepy |
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| Tau is so relaxed. |
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