Kafee the cat has met Sean for a while but she has never shown any interest in him, until the St Valentines day comes she finally gave him a sweetie kiss! ♥
It’s now proven this is not a day only for humans. Happy Valentines day!
Ladies and gents now I’m introducing our tortoise star – Ajani!
Yeah this is him, the giant tortoise you might have seen before! Has this big boy taken any veggies from your hands?
We have a gang of African desert tortoises. This is Ajani, now weighs 80 pounds, among the largest ones and a very strong boy. Ajani is an African name means “He who wins the struggle”, simply describes this heavy armored tank.
He is the dominant male of the gang and he maintains order within the tortoises. Whenever there are enemies he will step forward bravely and show some courage. No matter how much bigger the enemies are he will never step backwards. He has ever challenged cats, dogs (some rottweilers as well!) and the pot bellied pig.
Dominant male African desert tortoises are naturally born warriors. Many think tortoises are peaceful creatures. That’s true towards other animals but among male tortoises they have to fight very toughly for territory and a mate. How do they fight? They struggle! The winner is who can turn over another up side down. The loser, if he cannot turn back, will die alone in the boiling hot desert. In our desert trips it is not rare to find empty shells up side down being a snake den or lizards shelter.
But there are many animals Ajani doesn’t see as enemies. He likes lizards and parrots and will let them stay on his shell. He also likes crawling kids! Probably because he thinks he walks faster! 🙂 and yeah, definitely he loves any human who holds a piece of carrot.
Next time when you will meet Ajani don’t forget to bring some veggies with you!
Hi world!
I’m Ashley the caretaker in the frogs and spiders department
and this is my first blog entry!:-)
Here’s our new friend – Brazilian Black Tarantula
Her body is all black in color, you may think it’s a little bit scary.
But she is extremely friendly and easy to handle.
Just do not be deceived by appearances;-)
CNY is nothing for us..
anyways it’s good to say happy new year twice a year!
Lovely hoggy is becoming a big boy!! No more cutie baby face and showing a bit of manhood.
Oh by the way the jacket is hand-made by us!! 🙂 it’s been modified a few times before our Mr. Piggy feels good with it.
Ok so this is one of our Madagascan hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa). I just found her about to molt. For first time viewers it’s reasonable you have no clue what the ivory white bug with jet black eyes is. They look strange when they have become white because being dark seems to be typical of roaches.
A lil bit facts of this big bug. The hisser is native to Madagascan rainforests and is one of the world’s largest cockroaches. There are a few species that are bigger but the hisser is obviously more well-known than those. I have often found groups of them under logs in the past trips. They would hiss at the beginning of disturbance, but soon would stop hissing and run instead. These gentle giants would not attack no matter how bad they are disturbed. Yeah they are cockroaches, but are so different from the house ones. The Malagasies are naturally clean. Actually they won’t survive in dirty environment. They are relatively slow moving and wingless, means they cannot fly.
Every time they molt they go on a new stage of life. They will molt totally 6 times in their life. Freshly molted hissers are soft and ivory white. Without the protection of their shed exoskeleton, they would only choose to molt in the middle of the night in somewhere secretive. The body will be hardened and turn dark again quickly.
I’ve spent some time watching her shed entirely. I can’t remember how many times I have seen this but every single time it interests me in a different way. This time it happened right before new year. Obviously this cute hisser girl wants a brand new life in 2011.
By understanding these little critters you will be inspired in some way you’ve never expected. If people can shed like these cold blooded critters, we will be more open-minded and our society will be more positive. Regeneration is the word.
You can now learn from a cockroach how to live a brand new life in 2011.
Happy 2011 everyone!!
Thanks for global warming, this year it is especially cold. It has got to as low as 1°C outside, means 34°F. I feel like I am still in the big apple, but it is Hong Kong.
Most of our animal buddies here are the tropical ones. Obviously they have to stay inside with heating. Look how our Australian Blue Tongue Skinks enjoy the basking. During it’s 1°C outside, it’s 24°C inside, and right under the heating spot it can get to as much as 35°C.
These are 2 of our blue tongues, both boys – uncle and nephew. The uncle was a bit overweight in the summer. After months of better diet he has got back his shape!! Look at his lovely waist.
Blue tongues are omnivorous, very much, so most of em in captivity have got too chubby. It looks cute being fat but obesity harms health for the long run (just like people!) so we are happy to see him back in his juvenile shape.
Mice of different colors live in harmony. Why don’t people?
UV lamps of different types are used for our animals inside. We like using mercury vapor bulbs like the Zoo med power sun 160 watts and T-Rex UV heat lamp 275 watts. These are very fine lights providing good portion of UVA and UVB rays which are beneficial to reptiles especially the desert dwelling one.
Our lizards such as the bearded dragons and blue tongued skinks love to stay right below the bulbs with a flattened body whenever they’re put inside. They do well inside but I’m never satisfied without having a possibly more natural life. During summer I put them in the outside enclosures whenever the weather is fine.
These Australian lizards are known to be among the most tame lizards of the world. but, this only happens in captivity. I have found them many times in Victoria, NSW, Adelaids and also some northern parts of Australia. The wild ones don’t look so tame. In the daytime whenever you find one and get close to them during they’re basking, they probably won’t be running but instead they offer you a grumpy face with a wide opened mouth having the big tongue shown. Very grumpy looking ones indeed! These won’t often happen in the ones in captivity.
Today morning I put the beardies and blue tongues out for basking. I was basking together with them too 🙂 Long before when i felt i was done, while they’re still enjoying it, i stood up and came to take a look at them. They displayed the very big mouths together, very grumpy ones. That’s exactly what I’ve seen in the deserts. Loved seeing them doing natural behaviors. We’ve gotta let the wild beasts go wild!!
