This 27-year-old woman is the keeper of lions at Night Safari: ‘They are like house cats, but 30 times bigger’

Mariappan works in a group of 11 animal guards. Between them, they care for all the Night Safari’s animals, including the white lions and American light cats.

The zookeepers ‘ night shift begins at 9 am, and their day switch begins at 3 p.m. One of the first points the zookeepers do in the evenings is check up on any minor wounds the cats may have sustained at night to help them immediately call the vets if needed.

For body inspections, zookeepers use a specific stick, which is a rod with a ball at its conclusion.

” We put the target stick higher on the grid to get the tigers on their hind feet,” the statement read. and test their hands and ugly, rewarding them with foods along the way”, she said.

Mariappan’s work also includes entertainment – for the creatures, that is.

” Our cats love paper containers. Often, we hide the lions ‘ meals in recovered cardboard boxes, and dismiss it at a level. You can see the lions jumping, grabbing, shredding the containers into pieces, and devouring the meal in it.

” Maybe, they make a mattresses with the crushed boxes and sit on top,” she said.

A lot of this occurs before the garden opens, so the zookeepers work harder in the evenings to get the animals closer to area visitors so they can see them better.