Tallinn Zoo has a secret lab in the forest!

Most of the Tallinn Zoo is available for visitors but there are some things that are sort of secrets. The reason behind the secrets is that animals get used to people very quickly and although they are completely wild, they don't react to most people in any kind of way. A good example of this is this video of our male polar bear who doesn't really care that I'm standing 1,5 meters away from him:

In nature, this guy would've killed me or anyone else unarmed in a minute. Literally.

What happens behind the scenes in Tallinn? Although the zoo has not intended to keep one place secret, it apparently is. We have a very special group of employees at the Zoo who have saved one species from total extinction - this species is the European mink. They are the cutest little minks in the world with their white noses and fast tiny legs. We have European minks in exposition where the visitors can see them, but there is an area in the zoo which is off limits. This is called the Species Conservation Research Lab aka Lutreola. This lab has successfully bred European minks and reintroduced them to their original habitat in Estonia, where they had been extinct. The animals that live in the lab are only used to their own people, so whenever someone else comes along, you get a look like this:

Look at this cute little mink!

Tallinn Zoo is responsible for the coordination of European minks around the world, so the lab itself is a really important part of the conservation of the species. I think this is pretty cool not only because the species was extinct in the wild in Estonia but the employees that we have a doing extraordinary work. So Estonians, be proud of your country once more! 

The reason why zoo has a secret lab in the forest: that the European minks would be as wild as possible and they have all the secrecy they want when living and especially reproducing. It is not completely off limits for everyone, we are proud to show the area to other zoo employees around the world for example. What would happen if the let everyone there? These animals would get (too) used to people and when these animals would be released into wild (check out the link), the would not be scared of people anymore and could get into trouble. Simple as that.

Here's some video material from previous small tiny cute European minks (not filmed by me):

There is also a web camera at one European mink enclosure, check it out here!

Then there are the animals that react to people even though they are used to them - our polar bear cub Nora. She causes a lot of trouble as it is very amusing to tease people. Nora jumps into the pool to wet all the visitors and the more people laugh and scream, the more she likes it. Then she does this:

That is a skin off her lunch and these are the first days she started dropping the leftovers to the other side. After that, she realized that people reacted to her so she started crying to get it back. And the cry breaks hearts. Can you imagine - there are people, who climb over the safety barrier to give the leftovers back? DON'T DO IT! IT'S A TRAP!

Even though they are used to people, they still are dangerous to everyone - even the keepers always have a safety barrier between them and the bears. We are happy that nothing has happened yet, but the summer season is just starting. We are expecting the worst.

These pictures and videos are not recent, so here's a new video - from today. For those who haven't visited Tallinn Zoo, yes, really, that's how close you can see the Siberian tiger.

His name is Pootsman and he is the coolest tiger in the world if you ask me.

I'm off to my first part of my summer vacation and will be back on duty on 29th of June. Ta!

C.

P.S. No new information on the dingo case, the guy hasn't sent us pictures yet.

What to do when your dog is a dingo?

Working as an administrator in a zoo means also sometimes answering the general zoo telephone. Mostly we get questions about the ticket prices, opening hours, animals themselves and events. Springtime however is a bit different as babies are born not only in the zoo but naturally also in the wild. This means a lot of phone calls regarding chicks and other baby animals. It's good to know that so many people are concerned about the safety of wild animals but sometimes the concern is overwhelming. Just to remind you all, that wild animals should in most cases be left where they were found. 

We got a funny phone call the other day. Mostly they are about found animals in the wild, but this one call was different from others. The conversation went on pretty much like this: "Hi, we got a dog few months ago and it's growing bigger. We don't have a problem with him, but the thing is that he doesn't bark at all, only howls, his head turns around quite funny, almost 180 degrees, he's got huge ears and when we googled him... I think we have a dingo." Now I'm not a biologist or a zoologist, I'm not the person to tell you what you have, but I said automatically: "You think you have a what?". Just to explain you why I was so confused - we are in Estonia:

On the European map Estonia is here:

In case you don't know, here's Europe in the middle of the map, no point in pointing out Estonia separately:

Now if we look on the world map, you'll see that Estonia is the tiny country below Finland, next to Russia and on top of another tiny country Latvia. We also see Australia on the map. Now why I'm explaining this is because dingo is a species from Australia. This wouldn't be much of a surprise if the dog was from southern Asia. It is quite common that dingos are bred with other dogs but to find a dingo in Estonia - that's a new one! The person who called us promised to send pictures, but we haven't yet received them so we can't tell for sure anything, but here's a few tips in case your dog turns out to be a dingo:

• Treat it like a dog (not god)
• If it gets aggressive, train him
• Feed him
• Wash him
• Be a good caretaker

Dingos are dogs - just wild ones. They can be trained to be very good pets if they have not yet been used to the wilderness. No need to start hunting and catching dingos to get a pet, they like their wild lives, but if you suspect you have gotten a wild dog, you might want to let your local zoo know, maybe they'd want a dingo in their collection. Other than that, they are pretty much the same way many other dogs are. One plus is that they don't bark.

Back to the zoo life.

Our three gorgeous African elephants are now together in the enclosure. Most of the year they are separately: two females together and the male by himself, that's pretty much how it works in the nature. Those of you who are planning to visit our zoo, do it soon, the elephants will not be together for very long. When they are though, they are amazing to look at. These beautiful elephants can also be viewed from our web cameras: http://www.interactivezoo.eu/index.php?id=2. If you surf a bit around on the website, you can also find other animal web cameras as well.

Here's our male African elephant Carl:

Did you know, that all the elephants living in the zoo all around the world have to be trained? These huge mammals are too dangerous to be completely wild, so it's a safety precaution. As a zoo employee, I have had the chance to go backstage and see what it looks like from the other side, but I have to ruin it to you - it looks the same from the visitors point of view. Actually, even better. The backstage of the elephants is built for comfort and moving, so the constructions are massive and boring. All the keepers are in no direct contact with the elephants which means there's always something between the keeper and the animal. I prefer viewing elephants from the visitor's side though, the pictures are better as well. The web camera number 7 shows pretty well what the backstage looks like.

These web cameras are the same cameras that the keepers use to monitor animals and when there's something going on, the monitoring is on 24/7. Don't forget to watch our snow leopard nest camera: http://www.interactivezoo.eu/index.php?id=8 (nr 1). Our mother Deli is taking excellent care of her surviving cub so the video feed is pretty amazing to watch.

C.

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