A Bug's Life

Last weekend I went to Shepreth Wildlife Park with a friend for a birthday outing - as part of which we went to Meet The Lemurs. The five lemurs live on a little island and we were winched over on a strange boat on wires. Lemurs were very pleased to see us as we had brought the blue bucket which is full of food, and they leapt onto whoever was holding the bucket. It was quite odd the first time, as one pounces from behind - they weigh about the same as a cat (they look bigger but it's mostly fur), are agile and land very lightly, and have cool padded hands with divided palms so they're good at grabbing things. Banana is a favourite, and once they have eaten the chunk they drop the peel on your head or down your front so you spend the trip home picking bits of banana out of your hair. The long tail on the lower lemur is its natural length, some of them lost a bit due to frostbite in their previous home. The keeper said it's good for them to have visitors like this sometimes as it makes it easier when they need a vet visit.




Also there was otter feeding and clicker training. Otters are carnivorous bitey beasts and hard to handle, so they train them with a ball on a pole. See the ball: put both paws on to get a bit of food. See the pole end: touch it with your nose for a bit of food. Apparently this helps. Before feeding time they were really excited when anyone came along, squeaking and looking cute; afterwards they went for a nice lounge in the pool.




And the usual tigers and capybaras and fruitbats and things. A very nice day.