Week 243 (18 - 24 Aprl 2008)

In or out

This week, Cathay continued to look after her cubs like a true mother, but she must have felt some pressure from the visitors. Since the eyes of the cubs were opened, they have become more and more sensitive to any change in their environment. Though they kept quiet when the mother was away, when the mother was back, they began to scream, which always made Cathay nervous. From the beginning of this week, Cathay was trying to find a safer place for her cubs. She was often seen pacing along the mesh in the outdoor cage with a cub in her mouth. On Monday, Cathay once took the cubs back into the maternity box on the left side of the breeding centre, which was where she had given birth. On Tuesday, Cathay kept pacing in the outdoor cage of the breeding centre, wanting to go into the quarantine camp. Because she could only hold one cub at one time, another one would have a chance to crawl around on the ground. In the afternoon, both of the cubs fell into the quarantine camp through the gap beneath the mesh. The sliding gate was opened for Cathay. She came out and took the cubs one by one directly into the pole shelter. From then on, Cathay began to look after the cubs beneath the pole shelter. Since winter is fast approaching, it was common for the temperature in the early morning of this week to be 0℃. But every morning, the sun was shining into the pole shelter. Compared to the cold breeding centre, it was a much better place for looking after the babies.

Having now been in the small camp for a week, Hulooo has got used to it. To limit the chance that he would be shocked, the power of the three bottom live wires of the electric fence has been switched off. But the wires on the gate at a height over about 0.7m are still live. So if Hulooo stands up and try to touch the gate, he might get shocked. Hulooo still hasn’t learnt his lesson with the electric fence. He always looks forward to playing with people. On Friday, he became very excited while playing with Li. When Li left the camp, he came to the gate and stood up with his front paws holding the gate. He got a nice shock. Though he wouldn’t be injured from the shock, he sat far away from the gate for quite a long time.
One shock didn’t really give teach him a lesson. The next morning, he got another shock on the gate between the two parts of the small camp. After that, he learnt and he stopped coming too close to the gates. However, the clever Hulooo learnt very fast. He no longer drinks water from his small bowl, but drinks directly from the big water trough. This week, Hulooo was given a springbok leg every day. He didn’t show a lot of interest on the first two days, but soon these legs became both his food and toys. Every day, he was seen playing with the bones and running here and there with the bones in his mouth. On Wednesday, he got a blesbok leg for the first time. The taste might be a bit different, but he didn’t care about it and began to eat immediately.

Madonna and TigerWoods have been reunited again. TigerWoods was still very gentle with her as before and she was also persisting her old ways. The way TigerWoods treated Hulooo showed that he knew Hulooo was his son. Since TigerWoods was put back into the 9 ha camp, he spent most of his time staying around the small camp. He was always seen sitting next to the fence of the small camp and chuffing at Hulooo. Sometimes, he would make a soft calling sound, which sounded like he was talking with Hulooo. To the contrary, Hulooo didn’t regard TigerWoods as his father. Maybe in his mind, human beings are still his own kind. 327 was very quiet this week. Since TigerWoods was not in the 40 ha camp any longer, he stopped pacing along the fence of the 40 ha camp every day.