Live Prey for Fossa - Belfast Zoo 05/2012

Rabbits in Belfast obviously didn´t hear about the live prey ban and are offering themselves for dinner to the predators in the zoo...

(apologies to all bunny lovers for disturbing pictures.. )

(Edit: What happened with the title? I wrote "Live prey"... )

The headlines do not like quotation marks.

Interesting photo series though. As far as zoos actually instituting live prey, I have mixed feelings but I think it might be a good idea. At the very least, I would prefer to see zoos do whole carcasses instead of plates of meat. Here in the western United States where there is a lot of regulated hunting, it seems zoos could team up with hunters to have them donate excess meat - say half a carcass and let the hunter take the rest. More natural for the animals and saves on food bills for the zoo.

I share your feelings, Arizona Docent. There are so many things to consider.. I have no problem with fish put into a pool as an occasional enrichment for species like polar bears, fishing cats etc.. Live prey in general can provide a great enrichment for predators, but I wouldn´t want it to be a substitute for normal feeding, nor would I want it to become a sensational show for visitors. (It wouldn´t work anyway, two little girls started to cry when they saw this rabbit ) Totally agree with the carcasses..

With that said, I have to admit that I was absolutely amazed by this scene, I was watching this fossa for sooo long. Didn´t feel a bit of grief for the rabbit - he walked there "voluntarily", his fault.. The fossa was enjoying it very much and it was great to see some wild behaviour..

I read somewhere?

When animals are being attacked there body shuts down the and they feel no pain. Not sure if true but if memory serves me it was SunWukong he posted this so l would think it may be true.

We´re not that different - many car-crash or other accidents survivors will tell you, that they didn´t feel the pain straight away, they were in such a shock, that they didn´t realize the extent of their injury. So it might be similar in other animals. I think the shock and fear will be in many cases much bigger than the actual pain.

Hard to say, if it makes it more ok.. I would probably agree with those, that provide live prey, but give the prey animals some means of escape. That makes it "fair" and really imitates wild conditions.. like with this rabbit..

Bud I don´t know.. still very controversial issue...

What first comes to my mind, when talking about live prey, are African Hunting Dogs... they are hunting dogs, it feels weird to watch them eating plates of meat, when you know, what they are capable of in the wild. Occasional live prey enrichment would certainly be beneficial for species like this..

Once I was at the Phoenix Zoo and a juvenile cheetah starting chasing a mallard duck. It flew straight in front of him (why didn't it just fly up?) and the whole group that was standing there started chanting "get him, get him..."

The duck got away, but clearly the crowd was rooting for the predator and felt no remorse for the mallard at all.

It must have been thrilling I think it´s exciting, because you´re watching a real fight for survival - it can go either way - "will the mallard escape or not?" Hunt is one of the most exciting things to observe in nature. But would they be that excited, if the mallard had clipped wings, for example? I don´t things so, because then they would just watch the duck die inevitably..And that´s not that exciting, in my opinion.

I bet the cheetah had a great time chasing that duck, even if it got away

I saw on Animal Planet's old show Ultimate Zoo (wish that was still on) where they tied a dead rabbit up to a pulley so the cheetah could chase it and somewhat simulate a chase. I think this was at the Vienna Zoo.

They do it in Fota Park as well, with dead chickens.

(I´ve never seen it though, I was there several times and the "show" was always canceled for some reason every time.. maybe they only do it during a busy season? )

So was this an offered rabbit or did it just make a very unfortunate choice?