One of the great things about having an annual pass to the Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton is that now we can go anytime the weather is nice and we have the time. It’s a perfect spot for a picnic and a walk and it usually takes us 2 hours to do a nice tour to see the creatures and stop for a lunch.
There were some new faces at the zoo when we went this week! The zoo has two new residents, well actually four; two young dromedary camels and a pair of African Servals! The dromedaries are behind the lion enclosure where the nice horses used to be and the Servals are beside the mountain goats near the lemurs.
The servals are beautiful cats, and the serval has the longest legs of any cat, relative to its body size, which was quite evident when we saw one stand up! Wow, she had long legs like a greyhound. A beautiful cat. I didn’t know but the Savannah cat breed is a mix between a serval and a domestic cat! You could tell they were just getting used to their new environment having only arrived a few days before to the zoo. There was a family that approached and when the serval saw the little girl at the fence near her cage she bared her teeth and made a growl like she would like to have a bite out of that little treat with chubby cheeks who wouldn’t stop calling her a cheetah. “I’m a Serval, how dare you call me a Cheetah!”
The dromedaries are real sweeties; they were both relaxing in a hay pile and cuddling each other. Like camels, and unlike most other animals, dromedaries move both legs on one side of the body at the same time when they walk. Dromedaries have one hump as opposed to the camels two humps. They seemed to be quite happy in the large expansive pasture they inherited from the horses who had been their prior. The sun was toasting them and they were rubbing necks together and just being contented. The lighter colored one was yawning or doing some cud chewing movements and was quite cute. It looked a bit like she was singing!
The zoo at Magnetic Hill is the place we like to visit the most in Moncton!