August 12, 2010
It’s been quite a summer here in Washington. We are used to hot, humid weather but it normally doesn’t start in June as it did this year. We appreciate the visitors who come here and hike the Zoo when it is over 90 degrees! Some of them have asked me “How hot does it have to be before you won’t put the tigers out?” Well, since we have Sumatran tigers here, I guess that it would have to be hotter than Sumatra, and fortunately it hasn’t gotten quite that hot yet! Our cats are lucky to have the huge oak trees in their yards. The shade makes a huge difference in how hot it feels and I am always amazed at how much cooler it feels in the yards than on the sunny walk ways around the Zoo.
Tigers are one of the few species of cats that enjoy the water, and they will take a dip to beat the heat. If you have a cat as a pet, you probably know better than to try and give it a bath. Tigers, on the other hand, will go in the water for the same reasons that we do. First of all, it feels good! Nothing feels better than to submerge yourself in cool water on a hot summer day. A dip in the moat will also discourage insects. Biting flies can be a problem at any facility that has mammals that are outside, whether you're talking about horses at a stable or tigers in a zoo. The integrated pest management people here are the best and they do a remarkable job of controlling the populations of all sorts of annoying critters. But there is no way they could get rid of all of them. Imagine what it must be like in the tropical jungles of Indonesia where these tigers are from. No wonder tigers developed an appreciation for the water!
Guntur has another reason lately for going in the water. If you have been to the seen the tiger exhibit here you have probably noticed the windows that look over the moat in one of the yards. Those are the windows of the offices of the curators and registrars. Washington is a beautiful city but we think that the view from these windows beats the one from any other office in town. When someone turns off her lights, the window in that room becomes a mirror from the outside—Guntur’s side. Several times recently Guntur has swum over to the windows during the day to check out this other tiger that he sees. Usually he then goes and looks in the all other windows as well. Whether he is looking for the other tiger or just seeing what everybody is up to is hard to say. He always gets lots of attention from the people on the other side of the windows!
Another way to help the cats keep cool is frozen treats. When we defrost the beef that is used for training it produces some nice flavorful red "juice" that looks like blood. It isn’t really but is liquid that is inside the meat itself. Cows, like people, are mostly made of water and this juice is the result. If it were actually blood it would clot instead of remaining a liquid. Anyway, we add a little water to this juice and freeze it to make tiger-style popsicles. Sometimes we will put a little piece of the meat in the middle as an extra treat. We give these to the cats on hot days and they really enjoy them.
Hope you are keeping cool and enjoying your summer!
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