Emily Julius

Associate Producer

We began our shoot at the Philadelphia zoo early Saturday morning. They had been preparing for our crew for the last few weeks by acclimating the cats to strangers in the “back of house” area. Big cats don’t like strangers because they associate them with tranquilizing blow darts. They had been using a member of the zoo staff holding a box wrapped in a garbage bag as a stand in for the cameraman and his Varicam. We were skeptical as we squeezed into the tiny space behind the cage. We were going to be very close to these cats. The first cat up was Zenda, a female lion who needed to be weighed. The cat ran into the enclosure and immediately checked us out. She made a few noises letting us know that she wasn’t completely content with us being there. Then she relaxed and turned her focus to being weighed, in exchange for a bit of raw meat. The acclimating had paid off. She settled on the scale -- 306 lbs! The tiger cub was up next. This was part of the training process that will someday allow them to do a voluntary blood draw. It’s a two-person job. One keeper was poised to squirt evaporated milk into cat’s mouth. The other keeper was positioned to capture the tiger’s tail. They have worked their way up to getting the cat comfortable with them handling the tail, an amazing feet in itself. Now they are taking it even further. They take out an electric clipper and shave the tail! This part of the operation reveals a strange surprise. The tiger’s stripes are actually on its skin. The keeper feels for the tail vein and pokes it with a blunt needle. The tiger can walk away at any time but she lays still lapping at squirts of milk. They have been training her for months and this is the last phase. Soon they will be able to do the real thing. It’s a long involved process but by doing it they can avoid the trauma of blow darting the cats in order to do routine health exams.