Zoo vets give an injection to a young chimpanzee and administer an anesthetic for an eye operation on a lion.Photo/ GT

A major difficulty

One of the major difficulties for the vets when it comes to examining these animals is how to get them to submit quietly to the checks. Things have changed. In the old days the vets used to take blood samples from monkeys by forcibly tying their arms and hands. Obviously this stressed and frightened the animals and they became hostile.

Hence, the animal doctors at the zoo began retraining themselves and their animals so that these medical checks became less stressful and frightening. They began devising a new health check program with some of the more intelligent animals like golden monkeys, Manchurian tigers, giant pandas and takins.

The key to the health check program is rewarding the animal patients with food. The doctors use training sticks to encourage the animals to bend or sit on particular seats or couches. Using these sticks they touch the animals constantly so that the creatures become accustomed to being handled and touched by the vets.

The vets say the retraining program has worked a treat. Now when they have to be examined the zoo's golden monkeys know how to put their arms out of the cage when the vets have to test their blood. They let the vets draw a blood sample for about 30 seconds without complaining. The giant pandas have also learned how to open their mouths when the vets want to check their teeth or throats and even the penguins queue in an orderly fashion to be weighed.