Manuls at Opel Zoo
We often visit Opel Zoo, and over the past few months we just haven’t been able to see Faye.
In addition, Batu has been kept all this time in a separate small enclosure, and wires appeared in one of the houses in the large enclosure, which we think are for a camera. We were really hoping for kittens, but on our last visit the doors between the enclosures were opened, Batu was roaming the large enclosure, and Faye was still nowhere to be seen.
Today we decided to go for the whole day and find out what was going on with Faye.
In the middle of the day a keeper came to clean up (the keeper is great; when he went into Batu’s enclosure and then into the neighboring enclosure with the European wildcat, he greeted them :-) ) and when he was done, we asked him about Faye. He told us that Faye is alive, but she has some kind of injury in the area of her left cheek (it’s unclear whether it’s an external scratch or some internal injury), and she spends all her time in the house and comes out rarely. They keep them apart and also feed her separate food (we didn’t ask for details); apparently it’s hard for her to chew, but that’s only our guess. But, as he said, this may soon be over and they will live together again. Still, it remains unclear why two weeks ago we saw Batu in the shared enclosure.
Since the keeper lifted the roof on all four houses, but cleaned only three of them, that’s how we figured out exactly which house Faye is in. I stood for five hours opposite the entrance to that house, but no one ever appeared ;-(.
Batu is doing well; he is active and sociable. But the small enclosure is too small for him.
Here is the yawning and washing kitty:
P.S. When you stand in front of an empty enclosure for a long time, you start watching the visitors more. The poor kitty was called all sorts of things: a raccoon; a mini-lynx; some cheerful children asked us: is it a cat or a monkey; some person said misty cat
Comments 12
I hope Faye will be ok ❤️🩹
(emitting radiant beams of speedy recovery toward Fay)
Dear Faye, wishing you good health 😘
Thank you for telling us about Faye 🙏
Thank you for this update! Sending wonderful Faye healing vibes. 💚💚💚
Wish the two manuls good health! Did Batu lose one of his eyes 😢
Get well soon, little Faye ❤️🩹
Yegor, thank you very much for your post, photos, and news from Opel Zoo!
I very much hope that nothing serious is wrong with Faye and that she will soon recover fully and come out of her little house🙏
I got the impression that she and Batu make a very friendly manul pair ❤️
I can’t help noting how pleased I was by your message that the zookeeper told you without any problem what was happening with Faye — I really like that about European zoos, and such openness is sorely lacking in many Russian zoos🙁
Special manulover respect to you for waiting five hours by Faye’s enclosure! 👏🏻 It seems you have mastered to perfection the most difficult art of manuling and the manulover’s Rule No. 1: “You must know how to wait, because that is the hardest thing in the world” 👍🏼😁
PS: besides raccoons, monkeys, and even little bear cubs, the phrase we hear most often by the enclosures is “the manul fooled everyone,” but yesterday we heard a completely new one: “the manul drowned!” Oh, merciless folk creativity! 🙈😅
Egor, would you be so kind as to upload your photos of Batu from the post to the “photos, videos” section, please? 🙏
So that they’ll be in Batu’s personal gallery 😉
Health to Faye! And I’m glad Batu is active and cheerful.
Thanks for the news!
Yegor, shaking your hand! 5 hours in front of the enclosure! 👍🏻 That’s really cool!
Health to Faye! I hope she’ll be all right :)
Get well soon, Faye!