Hi guys, in this blog I will be talking about our gorgeous girl Kaia the Amur leopard, who made the move down from Sandwich to Wingham Wildlife Park. Kaia came to us from Marwell Zoo and has been the queen of sass at Sandwich Wildlife Park for the past few years.
Amur leopards are classed by the IUCN as critically endangered and are considered one of the rarest big cats in the world with only around 100 left in the wild. They are native to Northern China and southeast Russia.
Amur leopards produce a unique vocalization referred to as ‘sawing’ as it resembles the sound of sawing wood. She also produces a very deep growl which is sure to make you fall for her in no time.
Kaia, also quite fittingly known as ‘Her Ladyship’, is very particular about who works with her and it often takes quite a long time for her to ‘accept’ a new member of staff!
I have been working with her for several months on injection training to prepare her for moving day, on which we will also be doing a general health check.
We plan to hand-inject her with the anesthetic as opposed to darting her. She is quite a highly strung animal and it will be a lot less stressful for her to have a small injection in the bum than being darted. Normally the cats don’t even notice I have done it as it just feels like a mosquito bite to them with their thick pelts. Hand injecting also means that she won’t get a huge adrenaline rush from being stressed which often works to counteract the anesthetic drug, causing the process to take much longer. It can even require more of the drug to be used. Hand injecting relieves the cat of all this stress and they fall asleep quickly and calmly.
To train for hand injection with cats we normally use a mesh tunnel to train in, injecting into the muscle. When moving day arrived, Kaia trained excellently and did allow me to successfully hand-inject her and she fell asleep within 5 minutes. The team then got her out of the tunnel and we gave her a health check which normally includes temperature, dental check, body examination and taking a blood sample.
Then came the short drive down to Wingham Wildlife Park where she was wheeled in her crate to her new enclosure. She is settling in well and has had a good investigation of her new home. You can find her where the clouded leopards used to be, near the bears. Amur leopards are quite elusive, preferring to hide in thick bushes and often favour lounging high up in the branches so check up high if you can’t see her!
We will continue to maintain her training once she has settled in to allow for future health checks and vaccinations and hope to also move onto voluntary blood draws.
