Written by Savannah Woods, African lion keeper
I have worked full-time at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for about three years, and I currently work in the Rocky Mountain Wild, Asian Highlands and African lion areas of the Zoo. I always knew I wanted to be a Zookeeper when I grew up, and visiting our Zoo as a kid definitely reinforced that idea! One of the many species (and my favorite species) that I work with are the African lions. There’s one lion in particular that has made a lifelong impact on me: Abuto.
Abuto means a lot to me. I remember visiting as a guest when he first arrived at CMZoo, in 2013, and watching him grow into the very handsome and dignified patriarch he is now. He was one of the first animals I trained with. He has taught me a lot. Abuto is patient and has a great communication system set up so he can easily communicate, “yes, I am ready to train.” or “no, I am not ready” by exhibiting different behaviors.
If he’s ready to train, he’s still, calm and focused. We look for subtle movements, like an ear or tail twitch, that tell us we need to adjust his environment to make him more comfortable – which we happily do! This communication system sets the trainer and him up for success, so you get early wins that build your confidence and a positive relationship with him.
His training is important because it allows us to care for him. Abuto, like many older felines, has kidney disease. We do voluntary blood draws and blood pressure readings on his tail once a month to monitor his kidney levels and other levels and other health factors.
Just like with all of his training, he is in control and gets to make choices. He always has the ability to leave or choose not to participate. For his blood draw behavior, we support him with two trainers. He goes into the training space (we never share space with the big cats for our safety and theirs), where one trainer positions themselves near his head for feeding and communication with Abuto. The other trainer positions at his rear and helps our veterinary team draw the blood from a large vein in his tail. He has a very thick tail. My finger and thumb just barely fit around it when I gently hold it still it for a blood draw! Even though he is 14 years old and dealing with kidney disease, we have been able to prevent it from progressing with diet and medications, and he seems to be doing great.
I have worked with Abuto my whole time at CMZoo, and he really is full of personality. One of my favorite things he does is a ‘stalking’ behavior. When you ask him to come inside for his medication meatball, he will stand behind a wall and very slowly move his head into the doorframe until about half his face is visible. Then, he stands there and stares at you, acting invisible, until he sees that you have a meatball and then he will slowly stalk about five steps up to you, still acting invisible despite being in the middle of the room, and then he quickly runs up to lie down and get his meatball.
Something else that makes Abuto so easy to love is that most of the time while you’re training him, he gets a very serious and focused look on his face and makes very intense eye contact. He is completely ‘locked in’ when we’re training, and he is really smart.
This look is most prominent when we are doing CAB (calm attentive behavior), or his blood draw behavior, but if you ask him to show you his paws or stand up (both important behaviors to gauge his health) he lets his mouth hang open. He also likes to try to catch meatballs we drop down the feed chute with his front paws, and although he rarely catches them, I love that he tries every time.
He is very active in his own health care, and with the two female lions, Lomela and Elsa. He’s a particularly fun dad with Elsa, his daughter. They are very playful together, and often cuddle up for naps.
He loves engaging with enrichment items. He recently found a new favorite: a blue ball that he carries around the yard for a while before putting it in a safe spot and moving on with his day. Just like when he was much younger, he is still our ‘toy tester.’ When we get a new enrichment item, we give it to Abuto first because his technique for solving puzzle feeders is to use all his incredible strength and smack it around until he breaks it or food comes out. Our lions get what we call ‘stinky stuff’ multiple times a week, which encourages their important natural behavior of scent masking (rolling in the scent to mask their natural predator smell). These stinky smells range from nicer things like perfume, all the way to pungent elephant poop. For Abuto, the stinkier the better, with the exception of his favorite spice: cumin.
Abuto is a fantastic ambassador for his species, and just by being his wonderful self, he helps us educate people about lions. When he’s interacting with enrichment, we can talk about all the physical adaptions lions have to hunt and what they eat. If he’s rolling in stinky stuff we have provided for him, we can talk about scent masking, and when he’s sleeping, we talk about how lions sleep 18 to 20 hours per day. When people see him up close, we hope they feel connected to him, like we do.
We also point out his nose and whisker pattern to talk about how our conservation partners at Ewaso Lions, in Kenya, use nose and whisker patterns to identify the wild lions that they watch over. Then, we get to tell people about the rest of the amazing work they do, like the Lions Kids Camp and Mama Simbas, which are both projects CMZoo Members have voted to support in the past, through the annual Members-Only Conservation Vote each spring!
We hope the next time they see a lion on television or social media, they’ll think about their experience with Abuto, and they will have a deeper connection with lions as a species.
World Lion Day is Sun., Aug. 10 (the best day ever!) and we are celebrating the African lions from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in African Rift Valley. Come visit Abuto, learn about lions in Africa, and get to know Abuto, Elsa, Lomela, and Aslan, at CMZoo!
World Lion Day at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
On Sun., Aug. 10 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., guests are invited to participate in special lion-themed activities in African Rift Valley.
CMZoo docents will be running booths around the lion viewing areas, including:
– a photo booth
– African lion biofacts
– coloring pages and lion conservation information
– a matching game featuring the CMZoo pride!
Advance tickets are required. If your favorite time to visit CMZoo is sold out, take advantage of the Zoo’s rideshare tickets! Take an Uber, Lyft or taxi to the Zoo with your rideshare tickets, skip the parking and arrive any time. Rideshare tickets are always available at cmzoo.org/rideshare.