There are so many unusual creatures in our world! Moreover, some of them were on the verge of extinction until recently and have survived almost miraculously. Without them, our world would be poorer. But, fortunately, we can still see them - for example, at the Moscow Zoo. We will talk about some of these animals in this text.
Fat lori
Isn't it a funny name? And the animal itself, wearing it, looks funny and very cute. Fluffy and plump, it looks at the world with huge eyes.
In the zoo, lorises are fed with bananas, grapes, papaya, pears, peaches, apples … Children's cereals and cottage cheese, eggs and chicken meat, as well as … insects are used.
Marsupial flying squirrel (dwarf)
These animals have appeared in the zoo relatively recently. The history of the appearance of the first of them is rather unusual. He was caught on the balcony of one of the Moscow apartments. There he crept up to a watermelon lying in a prominent place. Residents took the caught animal to the zoo. It lives there to this day - now in the company of other flying squirrels. They were brought from Paraguay.
Przewalski's horse
In the middle of the last century, it turned out that only a few dozen of these horses remained in the world. Urgent measures were required to save the species. For this, the efforts of scientists from different countries were combined. Today the number of animals has increased significantly. There are several hundred such horses living in the wild. Also, a certain amount is contained in zoos.
White tailed wildebeest
By the end of the 19th century, this African animal was almost completely exterminated by hunters. At that time, it was believed that not a single white-tailed wildebeest survived in the world.
But it suddenly turned out that 2 African farmers bred these animals in captivity. So several hundred individuals survived. The number of wildebeest began to increase. Now they were being guarded. Soon the animals began to be released into the wild (in the reserve).
Vicuna
Photo Credit: Paul B Jones
In ancient times, this animal was considered sacred. It lived in South America. True, they hunted him, but not for the meat. The captured animal was sheared and released into the wild. Garments for dignitaries were made from his wool.
And then the Spanish colonization of the continent began. They did not stand on ceremony with the vicunas: they were mercilessly shot.
By the middle of the 20th century, the number of these animals decreased by almost a thousand times. Then people began to take urgent measures to protect them. A vicunia breeding program was established. Zoos from different countries (including Moscow) took part in it.
Pallas' cat
This wild cat has an uncommunicative character. Due to its secretive lifestyle, it is very difficult to study it in its natural habitat. Pallas' cat first became pets of the Moscow Zoo in the 50s of the XX century.
In the zoo, wild cats are under the special supervision of veterinarians. These animals have such a feature: when sick, they do not show their poor health in any way. Therefore, sometimes diseases are detected only at later stages. But even then, taking care of the animal's health is not easy: it desperately defends itself from doctors. We have to catch Pallas' cat with a net.
Zoo nursery
Keeping rare animals implies creating special conditions for them. Of course, this is not easy. And if you want to get offspring from these animals, the task becomes even more difficult. To solve it, a huge zoo nursery was created in the 90s of the XX century. Here animals are in almost the same conditions as in the wild. Many of the most unusual pets of the Moscow Zoo live here.
Here are examples of rare animals, the offspring of which were obtained in the zoo nursery:
- Far Eastern stork;
- wolverine;
- ram Marco Polo.
The stories of most rare animals sound pretty much the same. At first, through human fault, these species were on the verge of extinction. Then, through incredible efforts, they were saved. Now you have the opportunity to see these unusual animals with your own eyes. This opportunity is worth appreciating, because we might not have it … Remember this when going to the Moscow Zoo.
