Riki stars in a new video for kids!
Quarantine was over, and it was time for the nursery staff to say good luck to clouded leopard brothers Haui and Rikki. On January 12, 2013, the boys made the final move forward and graduated into their new life at the San Diego Zoo’s Backstage Pass program. Although we will have a chance to visit them in the main Zoo, we knew our special time of care here in the nursery was over. From the beginning, we knew that Haui and Rikki would be staying with us only for a short while, but it was still sad to see them go. We knew we would miss them even before they left! These boys brought a lot of life and fun into our unit, and the place would seem empty without them.
On the last day the leopards were with us, we took a minute to look back. When Haui arrived in the Neonatal Assisted Care Unit on December 1, he weighed a little over 10 pounds (4.7 kilograms) and Rikki weighed around 13 pounds (5.8 kilograms). When they left us their weights were 19 and 21 pounds (8.6 and 9.5 kilograms) respectively. When we looked back on a video taken upon their arrival, they looked so small!
Since that day, Haui and Rikki have been kept very busy at Backstage Pass. The boys have met lots of people as part of their training to keep them friendly and active. Additionally, the two are now part of the Backstage Pass presentations, are doing well on their collars and leashes, and have even been on TV.
The role of ambassador animals in our collection is to spread the word about conservation and to show the public how important, beautiful, and worthy animals are. It would be hard to find two animals more able to get that point across. These days, a look at the boys just about takes your breath away. They are quite simply gorgeous.
The trainers tell us that the boys are faring well. Rikki is still calm and relaxed and will study a new situation before jumping in. Mr. Howard (Haui) is still active and adventurous, willing to investigate and welcome new experiences. The trainers are pleased and proud of the progress the boys have made.
Caring for these two special animals was a rare treat for our staff. We will always remember our time with the boys, and we feel lucky to have been a small part of their introduction to our collection at San Diego Zoo Global. Who knows the impact these two beautiful guys will make on conservation? Haui and Rikki will spread bread on the water; who knows what will come back!
Janet Hawes is a lead keeper at the San Diego Zoo.
The boys recently participated in a video for our San Diego Zoo Kids website. They did great!
they are just beautiful. i still want them to come over for a play date.
Good job! A pleasure to read your blog. It must be sad to see them go on to the next stage in their lives but you have contributed much. I saw the video and they are gorgeous!
I so enjoyed seeing them in the nursery and miss them. I can’t afford Backstage Pass, so I guess I won’t be seeing them again unless they are on exhibit someplace when they are not “working.”
i read on the national zoo website that clouded leopards are paired with their mates at 6 months old to reduce male aggression towards the females during mating. will either of the boys be paired with a female? does the backstage pass experience help promote calmness in the boys. the artilce said that cloudies really like habitats with many levels to climb on…really like heights and don’t particularly like being housed near other large cat species. the article said that this also helps calm the females and that they hand raise the cubs to promote calmness in the cubs (increase survival as the females sometimes canibalize their cubs…i wonder if that might be due to stressfull environments.
Moderator’s note: You might enjoy reading a previous post, Clouded Leopard Success.