Our Visit to the Feline Conservatory! Fun Education!
We love taking mini educational field trips with our kids. Trips like these I try to wait to plan for the weekend so that my husband is able to go with us. My sister in law invited us out to this one a couple of weekends ago. She told me the kids will be able to see the big cats up close and personal even better than at a zoo.
Now I don’t know about you parents but I always get a little nervous when going to places where wild animals are caged in. I always think of the worse that could happen ie. freak accidents involving one of the animals getting loose. 😳🤭 But I just say a prayer asking the Lord to watch over us and keep us safe. I don’t want my paranoia to hold my children back from experiencing and learning amazing things.
I hope you enjoy the following pictures and short descriptions of these beautiful animals. The tour guides explained they don’t have all of these animals caged just for show. They use them as a tool for education. They explained how everything was designed in an order and without cats there would be too many mice and rats in the world with us. Each animal serves a particular purpose for being here.
African Cats
Their name is derived from a Turkish word meaning “black ear”. These nocturnal cats are amazing predators and are capable of climbing trees. They can leap more than 10 feet in the air to catch birds mid-flight.
Servals have exceptional hearing which they use to hunt rodents. They have small heads, oversized ears and long legs. You can spot them during the day.
You can easily spot a lynx by the tufts of black hair at the tip of their ears and their short tails. They spend most of their time on the branches of trees waiting for their prey.
We made it to the conservatory right before feeding time. You’ll get to see most of the animals eating their meals...showing their long tongues and sharp teeth.
This is an older lion and has been here for awhile. It looked rather skinny to me compared to the ones I’ve seen on television. I don’t think it took away from his fierce look though. He was focused on his meal.
Fox
This was the most adorable little white fox I have ever seen. A white fox can survive Artic temperatures as low as 58 degrees Fahrenheit. Their fox coat changes colors with the season to allow them to camouflage to effectively hunt rodents, fish and birds.
A red fox can live in many different habitats and can adapt well to human environments such as farms, suburban areas and even large communities. They are very intelligent and cunning. Their food mainly consists of rodents, birds, rabbits and small game.
White Wolves
Wolves thrive in some of the most harshest places on earth. They are social, intelligent and highly adaptable. In every wolf pack there is a male and female known as the “alpha” couple and they are ranked higher than all of the other wolves. This pair is the brewing couple and the pack is their family.
Tigers
I saved the tigers for last because they were our favorite to watch. Tigers are one of the most beautiful animals in my opinion. They know when it is getting close to feeding time and they all get anxious and start to walk back and forth awaiting their meal. They get irritated with each other and roar because they are hungry and frustrated while waiting. When they roared it was loud and powerful and our one year old did not approve. It’s almost like you can feel the vibrations of their roar through your chest.
As you can see this tiger was serious about her food and kept guard over it as she ate.
Each tiger has their own special meat diets. It was interesting watching the workers bring out large buckets of different types of meat for each one.
The two tigers above are sisters. They were raised in the same kennel when they were young. They had to separate them because they began to fight too much. It was really funny watching them interact with each other. The orange one tried to reach in from underneath the gate to steal her sister’s water bowl. Then a few minutes later the white one tries to trip her sister by striking her paw at her leg when she got up to walk. LOL it was hilarious! They told us that type of humor goes on every day with those two. If you look closely at the orange tiger, you’ll see she has a permanent scratch on the side of her nose that was given to her by her sister.
Here are a few last after meal shots of these beauties...
Congratulations! This post has been chosen as one of the daily Whistle Stops for The STEEM Engine!
You can see your post's place along the track here: The Daily Whistle Stops, Issue #141 (5/21/18)
The STEEM Engine is an initiative dedicated to promoting meaningful engagement across Steemit. Find out more about us and join us today.
Thank you!
You have been upvoted by the @sndbox-alpha! Our curation team is currently formed by @jeffbernst, @bitrocker2020, @jrswab & @teachblogger . We are seeking posts of the highest quality and we deem your endeavour as one of them. If you want to get to know more, feel free to check our blog.
Thank you so much!!! 😃
“ I don’t want my paranoia to hold my children back from experiencing and learning amazing things.” BOOKS! Can be written about this. I feel the same a lot too. But carnival rides, roller coasters in general. WHY? Lol.
Something about the wolf in a cage made me so sad :( Still, I go to the zoo too...
The white and the orange tigers are sisters but they are different colors? Do you know how that works? Is it like blue or brown eyes?
LOL!!! I know right! I could easily go and get a feline book or a book on African cats. It’s just not the same as in person. My kids are such visuals that they get so excited to get out and about to explore.
Oh my goodness I used to be such a thrill rider...getting on every ride you can imagine. Nowadays you won’t catch me near them Haaa!! I’m so afraid for my kids to get on them. Right now they aren’t interested but I hope it stays that way! 😅
I was shocked when the tour guide said they were sisters. I’m not sure how but I’m guessing it has something to do with the way they were breaded. I looked online and found a similar story of a white and orange tiger siblings. I want to learn more about this now, it’s so interesting.
Now I’m gonna have to go look up apples because I was going to comment on them and how you won’t necessarily grow a green apple from seeds of a green apple ...
But now I’m not sure.
I’ll definately be doing some extra reading tonight.
I know! You and me both! This is so interesting!!!
The photos are super beautiful and pro @crosheille, super love what you have taken of the foxes and tigers! It's my first time seeing foxes and African cats, they are so adorable! Can't believe you did this with your children while heavily pregnant! It surely shows you all had a great day :) Thank you, because I could show the foxes to my son, who loves the song "What does the fox say?" song like ALOT now.
Thank you so much!! My husband and I have had a lot of practice with our camera and it’s paying off!!😄 I’m so glad you enjoyed viewing them! We were with some of our other family members so they helped keep a close eye on the children. To be honest it was hard to walk around after too long and I had to sit down several times. This day was the day I realized I can’t do any more outings where I have to walk long distances until after the baby. Haaa!! My kids Love that song too...I hope he enjoys the pics!!! 😃 Thanks for viewing~ 💕
I see, perhaps it was one good last walk for this kind of distance. Haha my boy made me sing the song after I showed him the foxes and he danced around :P
Yes it was a nice last long walk! 😄
Lol that is so funny!! 😂
Wow!!! First of all, I love big cats in general.
Your photos of them are AMAZING! Fantastic work!! ♥
Thank you so much!!! They were amazing to shoot, such beauties!!!! 💕
Hey @crosheile it is good to have kids nerer to the nature...help them to learn a lot.
Yes it really is! Thanks for viewing!!! 😊
Beautiful animals! I'm the same way when it comes to caged wild animals. Especially circuses!!
Aren’t they beautiful?!!! I see I’m not the only one. Definitely circuses!!!
proud of my heritage ....haha
wildlife is fun in pictures and behind a cage
thank you for sharing
It was my pleasure!! Thanks for visiting!!! 😊
Love to see animals.is there any snowy leopards out there.
No we didn’t come across any while out there. Thanks for viewing ~ 😊
@crosheille I really love your photos! They are beautiful. I need to really need pick up some photgraphy skills... I agree the artic fox is the cutest ever! Look at those puppy eyes! It is so cool thag you guys have a special feline conservatory there. Ours are all lumped into something called a Zoo or Animal Safari.
Thank you so much!! I’m glad you enjoyed them!! 😃 Yes that fox was sooo adorable! Yes it is really neat having this here where kids can go and get close up education on these beautiful animals. Thanks for reading :D