ANI-2009: Tripod (M)

Meet Tripod, the Steam Spire Rescue Zoo's...not first, but by far most interesting member! Tri(pod) is a very playful, attention loving, and extremely friendly cougar! His story is a bit...interesting and needless to say, our zoo staff has a bit of dark humor. Tripod was actually brought to this zoo from another sanctuary along with another cougar cub named "Legs" because they were born a little...odd and at risk. Tripod was born without a leg, it was not an accident s most believe. The sanctuary believed he would need therapy or devices to walk normally so he was sent to us for the assistance, but turns out this funny little man was just fine!

Better yet, he LOVE attention and is very active. He does struggle every once in a while, but it never stopped him. Not to mention, he is also a little smaller than most males so he always stood out to our guests. His story doesn't end there. He was actually going to be put into his own enclosure with Legs for his own safety and company. However, one night when he was in his temporary home, he somehow managed to escape! Not only that, instead of running around and scared, he took advantage of all the moving and snuck in with our Amur leopard, Teeth! When she was being relocated into her new exhibit, our staff noticed he was there with her. At first it was a worrisome event as we did not want either of the two to injure the other, but surprisingly the two took a big liking to each other and it was actually more difficult to try to remove him from the Amur exhibit. 

Since that faithful day, any new Amur leopards we have are first introduce cautiously to make sure they get along with Tripod as well as Teeth. The pair have also had a litter of cubs together, but sadly they were split between the two exhibits for their own safety. This upset Tri for a few days, but eventually he became accustomed their absence.

Meet Tripod, the Steam Spire Rescue Zoo's...not first, but by far most interesting member! Tri(pod) is a very playful, attention loving, and extremely friendly cougar! His story is a bit...interesting and needless to say, our zoo staff has a bit of dark humor. Tripod was actually brought to this zoo from another sanctuary along with another cougar cub named "Legs" because they were born a little...odd and at risk. Tripod was born without a leg, it was not an accident s most believe. The sanctuary believed he would need therapy or devices to walk normally so he was sent to us for the assistance, but turns out this funny little man was just fine!

Better yet, he LOVE attention and is very active. He does struggle every once in a while, but it never stopped him. Not to mention, he is also a little smaller than most males so he always stood out to our guests. His story doesn't end there. He was actually going to be put into his own enclosure with Legs for his own safety and company. However, one night when he was in his temporary home, he somehow managed to escape! Not only that, instead of running around and scared, he took advantage of all the moving and snuck in with our Amur leopard, Teeth! When she was being relocated into her new exhibit, our staff noticed he was there with her. At first it was a worrisome event as we did not want either of the two to injure the other, but surprisingly the two took a big liking to each other and it was actually more difficult to try to remove him from the Amur exhibit.

Since that faithful day, any new Amur leopards we have are first introduce cautiously to make sure they get along with Tripod as well as Teeth. The pair have also had a litter of cubs together, but sadly they were split between the two exhibits for their own safety. This upset Tri for a good while, but eventually he became accustomed their absence. The two cubs he is still with are Romulus and Prometheus. Despite their intimidating names, they are all very loving and sweet with each other. Although Tri is a very protective parent, it's obvious he is a little more protective with Rom thank he is with Prom. Not only is Prom bigger than Tripod, the two seem to "bicker" a lot.