Opel Zoo. Fay’s mystery is solved!
This is a continuation of a long story. In short: we haven’t seen Fay since the beginning of the year, and a month ago the staff said she had a minor injury and was coming out only rarely.
We visited Opel Zoo today. It was immediately obvious, both by sight and by sound, that construction was underway in one corner of the zoo. The posters say that rhinos will be living there in early 2028. That’s far from the manuls. But the zoo lies in a valley between two hills; the construction is on one slope, while the manuls live on the opposite slope. Formally, as the crow flies, the distance is great, but in practice there is a clear line of sight between them, and the manuls can hear the sounds of construction.
The small trees in the manuls’ enclosure were trimmed, and there is now more open space. One of the shelters was also moved from the large enclosure to the small one. Before, there were 4 shelters in the large enclosure and 1 in the small one. Now there are 3 and 2. Though for some reason the shelter was placed exactly where the manuls sometimes use the toilet. But Batu sometimes sits on the roof of that shelter, apparently approving of the rearrangement.
At the neighbor’s enclosure, the European wildcat’s, a small area was fenced off with netting (about 2*3 meters). Maybe someone will be brought there temporarily during the breeding season (dreamily...)
Batu was active all day (with breaks for sleep, of course)
But around 3:30 p.m. Fay came out! All sleepy and rumpled, covered in sawdust. In our view she is completely healthy; no visible signs of injury or illness can be seen.
The manuls started walking around both enclosures. A little later they began glancing often at the door where the food is brought in. Even later they started racing around the enclosure. Sometimes they walked side by side, sometimes they bumped heads. It was very funny: at first, when they met, one of them even hissed and showed its teeth. And later they even started licking each other’s heads 🥰 so sweet. Everything was just as it was last year, and we breathed a sigh of relief.
Something amusing. When they’re рядом, the difference is easy to see: Batu is bigger, darker, and has a thin tail; Fay is smaller, lighter, but her tail is in its winter version.
We never did wait for feeding time.
P.S. because of my carelessness, by the time Fay came out my camera battery had died. So there are only photos from my phone.
P.P.S. the manuls need to do something about their PR. We’re standing by the enclosure, admiring Batu. Two people come up. The first says: there’s nobody here. The second says: I’ve never seen anyone here. Right in front of them, two meters away, a cat is lying on the roof, but the people don’t see him 😡
Comments 15
Fey is such a fashionista, it turns out! She picked herself a beautiful fluffy tail 😁 Glad she’s all right
Thank you! Such a warm story, as if I had been there with you 🤗
Yegor, thank you so much! I’m already looking forward to your reports; the news about Mimi’s little ones alone is worth it 😍👍
Fey is so beautiful 🤗🥰
Thanks for the story! A good zoo, and free too, but apparently not very well known.
I wonder why Batu and Baralachi have such different tails?
Евгения Власова, Thank you. With Mimi, it was pure chance; when will something like that happen again?
Nebelbergen, No, no, the zoo isn’t free. But it does have a very inexpensive annual pass. The zoo is good, but it’s located quite far away.
egor k, But that was really cool! 🔥
Your reports are something else!
Thanks for the news!
Wonderful to hear everyone is doing well!!
And I agree that manuls need better PR! I never see people waiting by the enclosures for long periods admiring them like with tigers and gorillas. They glance and go. 😡
egor k, Thank you, Egor. I don’t know why I decided that Opel and Blaydorp were free. Lyon is definitely free, though there are no manuls on display there either.
I read the headline and thought of manul kittens.
Wonderful report, thank you so much!! And what wonderful Faye and Batu they are! I’m glad that Faye is all right and that she and Batu are friends)
Yegor, thank you! I love your reports! 😻
I’m so happy to read that Faye has recovered and is once again lively and active. That’s wonderful news! 🙏
By the way, it seems to me that Faye and Batu make a very friendly manul pair.
As for the rearrangement of the little houses... maybe they now have such a cool enclosed toilet? 😅
PS: today at the Novosibirsk Zoo I heard something new: – Oh! Those are raccoons! – Nooo, they’re not raccoons! They’re probably bush dogs! 🙈
Евгения Власова, I second that! I also really love Yegor’s reports 😍
Nebelbergen, I think the thing is that it’s not so easy to get there 🤔
Roma and I once wanted to visit him, but we gave up on the idea because we couldn’t figure out how to get there quickly without having a car of our own :(