“We Bought a Zoo (2011)” this film portraits a story that is not far from reality and I was fortunate to be involved in filming behind the scenes the revival of one in tropical Australia.
The receivers of this closed zoo appointed a zoo animal carer to look after the animals welfare until such time a new owner was found to purchase the zoo.
These are some of the behind the scenes with “Tim Husband” the appointed Zoo Keeper and a whisperer to these animals. We will in a near future release some more fascinating footage as a tribute to Tim’s remarkable professionalism and integrity toward these magnificent animals in a love and survival stories.
The following video segment is a dramatic lion cub scene where gulping the meat without properly chewing has almost disastrous consequences. Although a situation like these in captivity is quite rare, deaths have occurred from food chocking on exotic captive animals in New Zealand and the Rotterdam Zoo.
Performing the “Heimlich maneuver” in a lion cub, is a common procedure, by applying several forceful abdominal thrusts that force air out of the lungs via the diaphragm. It may seem hard and brutal, but in comparison to a kick from a Zebra, this is a walk in the park for any lion.
Alberto Vale
Alberto Vale is an award-winning wildlife filmmaker, cinematographer, naturalist and citizen scientist based in Cairns, North Queensland, at the gateway to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. For more than two decades, Alberto has combined wildlife cinematography with an intimate knowledge of tropical habitats, guided by a simple principle: to film wildlife successfully, you must first understand its habitat and behaviour. As founder and President of the Australian Quoll Conservancy (AQC), he has spent more than a decade conducting non-invasive field research on the endangered northern spotted-tailed quoll, developing non-invasive techniques to identify and monitor individual animals, breeding and behaviour without conventional trapping. Through WildCAM Australia®, Alberto has produced and directed internationally broadcast natural-history documentaries, including Green Tree Ants – Friend or Foe?, Quolls: Fast & Furious, and his latest production, Quollity Breeding, narrated by veteran Australian voice-over artist Katherine Kennard. Today, Alberto continues to combine cinematography, natural history and citizen science, using the camera not simply to capture wildlife, but to reveal behaviour, contribute to conservation knowledge and bring the hidden lives of Australia's native species to audiences worldwide.
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