Afghanistan leopard. Panthera pardus saxicolor. Less than 50 in captivity. Survival in nature in doubt.
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Because the 75-year-old lion house is being remodeled, 13 tigers, lions, leopards, jaguars, and cougars have to be moved to temporary quarters in the primate house. While the big cats are in their cooperative, drugged state they will be given general physicals.
Siberian tiger. Panthera tigris altaica.
After they draw blood from a vein in his back leg, Ajax is ready to roll–through the wheelchair-access door and down the ramp, leaving a trail of tiger saliva. They roll him around to the side of the primate house, where he will occupy the spacious outdoor cage once inhabited by Bushman, the legendary gorilla. They have to pass Ajax on his stretcher over a railing. “We need some mega-muscle,” Perry says. Joel pumps the foot pedal to raise the gurney and hums a little vaudevillian music for the magician’s entrance. “You’ve always wanted to levitate a cat,” another zookeep says.
It takes six to lift him, too. He weighs in at 355. Joel checks him for ingrown toenails. Perry pries his mouth open as if she were about to dazzle the crowd by inserting her head. Joel draws some blood. Perry withdraws the rectal thermometer: 103.8. Good enough. Now Bernie needs “scaling”–teeth cleaning. Perry uses what look like a regular dental hygienist’s tools, an electric and a handheld scraper. She digs away at Bernie’s rear molar. Those hoofed mammals leave an awful black plaque.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jon Randolph.
