Week 239 (21 - 27 March 2008)

327 moves; Cathay and Madonna fight

This week 327 was successfully lured into the new small camp by using two wildebeest legs. Initially he seemed quite disappointed and moaned a lot. However he liked the pole shelter and often spent a whole day resting under it.

Cathay was fed every day in the breeding boxes in the breeding centre. After a whole weeks’ training, she had learnt to feed this way. However she always took food out of the box rather than eating it inside. On Thursday morning some dry grass was put in both breeding boxes in the breeding centre. Cathay came close and smelt it, but she still didn’t walk in.

In order to train Madonna to give birth in the breeding centre, since Monday Cathay was closed in the breeding centre during the night. Madonna was introduced into the quarantine camp for the night. Meanwhile the sliding gate to the other side of the breeding centre was opened so that Madonna could enter to explore it.

On Monday afternoon Madonna was fed in the breeding box in the quarantine camp. On Tuesday the meat was put in the breeding box in the outdoor cage of the breeding centre for her. Madonna was very cautious of the breeding box and just watched from the entrance but did not enter. Later she went to sit down near Cathay’s cage. She turned her back to Cathay and her tail went underneath the bars separating the two front cages emerging on Cathay’s side. Cathay dropped her food immediately and ran to Madonna. She kept hitting the cage, trying to hit Madonna. When she did hit Madonna’s tail, Madonna got a big fright and jumped onto the mesh of the cage, hooking herself on the mesh by using all her claws. She was almost hanging on the mesh. That posture made her more helpless but she didn’t know how to get off as well. She seemed quite frightened with both her ears pulled back and eyes widened. However in the mean time Cathay was continuously hitting the cage. She even stood up on her hind legs trying to hit Madonna. A few seconds later Madonna finally decided to jump off but space between the breeding box and the water trough was very limited and once she had jumped off she knocked herself against the water trough. This gave her another fright and she just ran all the way out to the quarantine camp. Madonna only calmed down half an hour later. She tried several times to enter the breeding centre again to pick up her food, but all failed. By the next morning Madonna had finished all the meat in the breeding box in the outdoor cage. Marks in the cement of the breeding centre where claws had scratched the floor were clearly visible as well a little bit of blood, especially on Madonna’s side. It was assumed that Cathay and Madonna had fought again during the night, because both tigers were limping. Madonna kept licking her hind legs.

Madonna was then released back into the maternity camp with TigerWoods to avoid any further stress between her and Cathay.