Visitors and Science

This past week was a little hectic and our days were not quite run the way they normally are. We had some very special events taking place. We had a team from the National Zoo in D.C. come down and attempt artificial insemination on three of our cheetahs. This took place over two days, April 6 and 7. So we had the time to see these events take place and help the Cheetah team with anything they needed we really had to work to crank our everything we could in the morning on both days. The first step to the A.I. is to anesthetize the male they are going to use and collect semen by a process called electroejaculation. Then they anesthetize the female and check to see if she is ovulating. They make two small incisions, one for a small camera, and one for a probe tool. All three females underwent hormone injections to help ensure they would be cycling. However, each of the cheetahs are on a  different hormone program as they are currently testing out four different protocols to see which one works best. The first day they knocked down Timbou, and then Mocossa. Unfortunately she was not ovulating and could not be inseminated. Now this could have been due to the hormone protocol she was given, or she could be in the 30% of cats who do not respond to the hormones. For day two I was in charge but ran the day basically the same as Val had the day before. We had huts done, diets made, and bear huts set up before 11:00. Kira was the first female up for the day and she was also unable to be inseminated because she was not ovulating. Lastly we tried for Sanurra. Sanurra had two, and maybe three, promising looking follicles so they were able to go ahead and inseminate her. This procedure only has a 30% success rate so it would be fantastic if she conceives. Another great thing is that with Sanurra , because she was hand raised, we can do ultrasounds and take weekly blood samples which will tell us whether or not she is pregnant. Cheetahs can have false pregnancies where they show all the signs of being pregnant but never give birth. It will be really good to know for sure if she is pregnant.

In other news Donna is doing very well at sleeve training. I have introduced a command to it and she is doing it consistently.

Here is my week with the black bears.

The Three Stooges, we played with bubbles for a bit

 

Little Girl actually came halfway out of her culvert

The boys playing

Such cute faces!

Bear loves

Momo face (Chochmo)

Sleepy Donna

Claw marks on their climbing structure

And my pics for lions and brown bears this past week.

They love their hide burritos

Tau is so cute in the morning

Keeno and Tash enjoying the sun.

Looking little like a beached whale <3

Rayna is 5' 2" she is standing ina tunnel the girls dug over two days. The roof fell in overnight.

"Just five more minutes!"

 Hope you enjoyed, keep your fingers crossed for future cheetahs cubs! Her is Tau saying goodbye!