Bulletin From the Barn: February 23, 2010
Baby Anteater Update From Keeper Marie Magnuson
You probably heard about giant panda Tai Shan leaving the Zoo and going to China. Well, a week earlier Cyrano traveled to his new home at the Nashville Zoo. Just as our giant pandas belong to China and are on loan to us, our giant anteaters are on loan from Nashville, and any offspring that Dante and Maripi produce belong to Nashville as well. This should work out well for Cyrano. Nashville has quite a few anteaters and we hope that the zoo will match him up with a nice young girl anteater and they will have a baby of their own someday. If you've been following the anteaters at our zoo for a while, you know that's what happened with Maripi and Dante’s first baby, Aurora.
Roomy Accommodations
While Cyrano did not have as far to travel as Tai Shan, just as much care was taken with his trip. Nashville Zoo’s director, Rick Schwartz, happened to be in the area so he dropped off the carrier that Cyrano would be travelling in. It was made just for anteaters out of tough plastic that the anteaters cannot tear apart with their claws. It also had lots of air holes for good ventilation. We put some hay inside for comfort and warmth. We would have liked to put it inside Cyrano’s enclosure so that he could get used to it, but it was too big to fit through the door! While he didn’t have a chance to “test drive” it before the trip it was nice to know that he would have such nice roomy accommodations when he traveled.
The morning that Cyrano was leaving the keepers put the carrier in front of the door to Cyrano’s enclosure. We then slid the sky kennel that Cyrano was sleeping in up to the door of the carrier that he would be traveling in. We had hoped that he would get up and walk in, but the anteater motto is “When in doubt, pretend to be asleep” so that didn’t happen.
Cyrano remained curled up under his tail so we gently lifted the end of his kennel. You could almost hear him say “All right, all right, I’m going!” as he went into the carrier, and we closed the door behind him. He immediately curled back up, covered himself with his tail and prepared to go back to sleep. We covered the carrier with a blanket since most animals feel safer and more secure when it is dark. We then carried it out and loaded it into the back of Rick’s SUV.
Private Car, New Food
That’s right! Cyrano was chauffeured to his new home by the director of the zoo! We sent a supply of peanut butter (Cyrano’s favorite) along for the trip, as well as some of the anteater chow that he was used to and off they went. The keepers in Nashville will gradually transition him to the diet that they feed, which is very similar. They arrived safely in Nashville later that day and the keepers there gave Cyrano some avocado, which he had never had before. We hear that he likes it very much!
While we will miss him we know that leaving is what’s best for Cyrano. Growing up and going off is the way of the world, for both anteaters and people. We wish him well wherever life takes him.
