Animal Diaries Archive

Echo's Adventures

28 April 2006

Echo, our largest male cheetah, proved to his keepers this week just how tough he really is. On one of his morning walks through the Zoo he bravely explored one of the Zoo's pieces of machinery equipment. Jumping on top to get a better view of the surroundings, Echo certainly looked on top of the world. Cheetahs in the wild naturally seek higher ground to observe greater distances to check out animal activity and possible prey opportunities. Although all our four cheetahs are captive bred they still exhibit these natural behaviours on a regular basis.

I don't know whether it is a coincidence or not, but when Echo first arrived at Australia Zoo he was inundated with toys, one of which was a toy Tonka truck. His brother Foxy would never go near the truck, but we often caught Echo playing with it, and it soon became his favourite play item. So it was real laugh when Echo explored the real thing. As he has grown, and so too have the objects that interest him.

As the cheetahs all get they older they are certainly getting more courageous about exploring new things, whether they be smells or objects.