Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Posted at 3:21 pm May 17, 2007 by Maureen O. Duryee
Whenever our clouded leopard girls work in the Wild Ones show at the San Diego Zoo’s Hunte Amphitheater, they always go for a long, leisurely walk home behind the area (see Maureen’s blog, K2: Clouded Leopards). No matter if it is raining or the wind is blowing or the sun is out and baking the earth, we go for a long walk home. This walk has become precious for them and us. While walking, fellow trainer Heidi and I usually review how the show went. All the while, our clouded girls are rubbing, rolling, and marking their territory or, in Kilat’s case, looking for trees to climb. That girl loves to climb trees at such a rapid rate that one’s eyes have a hard time keeping up! She will climb up one tree and then will launch herself into the next closest tree, then run down that tree, and then she is off climbing yet another tree.
This particular afternoon, Kilat scaled a new tree, one that I’d never seen her climb before. It was a young eucalyptus tree, so the trunk wasn’t very big. Kilat has a climbing style that looks as if she is hugging the tree as she climbs it. Honestly, she had climbed about 10 feet into this tree and was almost at the end of the leash when she stopped and started staring at the roof of our compound, which was another 10 feet from where she had placed herself. She looked at the roof, looked down at the ground, back at the roof, and in an instant had launched herself into the air. While still in the air, she kicked out to give herself an extra boost. Well, she cleared the gap between the tree and the building, which was quite impressive. And when she landed with a boom, one had to wonder who was sleeping under that section of the compound! She never slowed down, just kept right on walking over leaves and branches that had collected from the last rainstorm. All in a day’s work–well, for a clouded leopard, maybe!
Maureen O. Duryee is an animal trainer at the San Diego Zoo’s Hunte Amphitheater.
Walking Our Clouded Girls Is Heavenly.
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May 18th, 2007 at 7:08 am
Maureen, how do they manage all the jumping and climbing without getting their leashes all tangled up? Do they have space to just run free?
May 18th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Thanks, Maureen, for wonderful insight into the world of Kilat. She sounds like quite a cat, especially since Clouded Leopards are notoriously elusive. One rarely gets to see them in person in their exhibit at NZP or on their webcam.
You are blessed not only to see them, but to work with them up close. I am sure they enjoy the enrichment the long walks provide with the new sights, scents, and sounds.
Was she startled by the loud bang when she landed? From the photo, she looks like a full-sized girl who would likely have made a very loud thud when she landed full force. It is amazing how agile these beautiful animals are, and their reputation for climbing trees and jumping between branches is legendary.
We look forward to future accounts of the adventures of the two clouded leopard girls.
May 19th, 2007 at 10:09 am
I love these animals, so powerful and graceful