Lions at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm celebrate birthdays with new habitat, ice lollies and enrichment activities

BristolWorld

The new lions habitat has officially opened at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm in the outskirts of Bristol.  It marks an important milestone in the zoo's Project Carnivora.  This week also marks lions Tau and Arusha's birthdays. To celebrate, they received a special blood ice lolly and some additional enrichment activities.  BristolWorld had the opportunity to talk with Noah's Ark Zoo Farm Director and CEO, Larry Bush, Curator, Chris Wilkinson, and  lead lion keeper, Emma, about the new facilities and Project Carnivora.

Transcript

00:00We're just outside of Noah's Ark where the new lion habitat has opened.

00:04Let's step inside to find out more.

00:12Can you tell us a bit about the new lion habitat and how the felines have reacted to it so far?

00:19Yeah, so of course lions are quite cautious animals, so first intros were steady and slow.

00:26But now they've settled in, they're using all parts of the habitat and really enjoying it.

00:31We're able to really exercise them, which is in body condition, and they are just really enjoying having the mounds.

00:39So they can sit, they can see all around them, feel nice and comfortable.

00:43They're using the bamboo for shade and all the enrichment features from the location they're really enjoying.

00:48So we've redeveloped our lion habitat to make it really exciting for the lions.

00:54We've got lots of features built in that we're really proud of, that we love seeing the lions using and enjoying.

00:59Their favourite place is sitting up where we can see one there now up on the hill,

01:03taking a kind of lion's eye view of the whole place and keeping an eye on their surroundings.

01:08But there's loads of feeding enrichment and places for them to certainly explore.

01:12And can you tell us a bit about the new features that have been added?

01:16Yeah, so we've got feeding poles where you can put the meat in all different places so they get different sorts of exercise.

01:22Like grabbing things is really good for the way that they're built for catching prey,

01:25so climbing uses those same muscles.

01:27So reaching up these poles is really great for that.

01:30We've got other places to make it a little bit more challenging, so get up high or hidden.

01:35And we've tried to put in loads of places for them to kind of choose the environment they want to sit in,

01:41different substrates they want to walk on, they want to get out of the weather,

01:44they want to sit in the sun, all of that kind of built in for loads of choice for the animals.

01:50And we're also standing here in this nice viewing tower where we put full height windows in

01:54so that people can get a really great view of them and the lions can get a really good view of the people too,

01:59which they seem to like doing so much.

02:01So the large boulders in the lion habitat were sourced from a local quarry just outside Clevedon.

02:06It's actually the quarry where all the buildings then came from for building the M5 motorway.

02:11And there are some large boulders that the owners of the quarry actually allowed us to have as part of this

02:19habitat creation and it's really important for us to build sustainably so to be able to get the quarry rocks

02:26and also the timber that we've used for the feeding poles that's come from the local woods.

02:31It's brilliant that we've got so many local materials that we've used within that habitat.

02:36So overall it's part of the Project Carnivora. Can you tell us a bit about what are the next steps in the project?

02:43Project Carnivora is a multi-phase project so it's lasting over a few years.

02:48The lion habitat is the first phase that we're delighted we've completed that.

02:53Where I'm standing now is phase two and that's our tiger habitat.

02:58And beyond that we've got other species that we're going to be introducing including arctic foxes and also hooded vultures.

03:06And so we're going to be creating those new habitats over the coming year and growing our collection of carnivores.

03:14incredible animals. People are really inspired by them and they all have great stories to tell about conservation.

03:21nostalgia, conservation, conservation, conservation, conservation, conservation, conservation, conservation, conservation, conservation,��, sprawling, snap drawing.

03:25By not a highlight we've got any action after lots of the trafficking thatаем from the Caribbean.

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