new series of The Zoo » Auckland Zoo

episode ten
16-11-2008

there were four stories on The Zoo tonight. I think it may have been the final episode of the series, judging by the narrator's closing sentence ("and thus ends another year at the zoo...").

The first story was the tiger cubs going outside into their enclosure for the first time.

Second was that one of the golden lion tamarins had a mystery illness for which they had to anaesthetise her. It was interesting to note that in the operating room the vet wore a mask and surgical gloves but there were half a dozen other people in there with just their regular zoo clothes on. It turned out the tamarin had a kidney infection and got much better after treatment. That's nice. Apparently she's twenty years old!

Third story was that the meerkats have had a second set of triplets. Their keeper filled a tunnel with straw and mealworms and they all had a jolly good time.

Fourth story was about two little piggies. The zoo has got two kune-kune piglets from a farm up north for their childrens' zoo. To get them used to being handled (or man-handled as the case may be, seeing as how they're going into a childrens' zoo), two keepers walked the piglets on leashes around the zoo. They were so fat and cute. The orangutans thought so too, even the lazy one.

17-11-2008

I thought the first set of triplets was the first in the zoo's history... Two in a year would be unprecedented..!

episode eleven (sort of...)
24-11-2008

well it seems last week's episode was the final one in the current series, but tv2 stuck in an extra episode this week called "The Zoo: This Is Your Life" about Kashin the elephant (who turned forty last week). Elephants don't really interest me all that much but the episode turned out to be very interesting, having old footage of Kashin in the early days and other elephants that have been kept over the period, interviews with past keepers, and even news footage regarding some loony who got into Kashin's stall and got punished by the elephant

After the credits rolled came the copyright date of 2007, so it was from last year but none the less interesting for that.

26-11-2008

Yes it was very good (I love historical footage..!) however I thought they overstated her health prospects at the end, it seemed to be, "She's had very poor health and now she's all fine", when in reality they wouldn't be having meetings now about Burma's future if Kashin was likely to see the big 5...0...