Zoo animals provide a great deal of enjoyment to visitors. Throughout the United States, and throughout the world, millions of children and adults are provided the opportunity to observe thousand of different kinds of animals. Quite often, this will be the only chance people will ever have to become familiar with these animals.

While visitors may not be aware of the care that is required to keep the animals healthy and happy, those who work at the zoos must accomplish a wide variety of tasks. Of course the animals must be properly housed and sheltered. Different species require different habitats and even different temperatures in order to thrive. Nutritional requirements vary widely between different animals. And of course, all of the medical needs of the animals must be met.

Weighing scales play an important role in a number of different roles at the zoo. Usually, the amount of food required by the animals must be weighed. The digital scales used must be able to withstand a wet environment, as they may often need to be washed after use. The electronic scales will probably need to be moved to different locations to serve a number of different animal habitats. So they must be quite rugged. While these scales may be either bench scales, platform scales or even floor scales, they may need to be quite portable, and may therefore need to run from battery power.

It is often also necessary to weigh the individual animals for medical reasons. While human medication is often a standard (take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning), the weight of different individual animals of similar species may vary widely. Therefore the dosage of medication may be directly related to the weight of the animal.

Because of the different overall sizes and weights of different species, a wide range of veterinary scales may be required. Bench scales would be suitable for weighing smaller animals, such as birds, small reptiles, cats, and a wide variety of other small species. Animal scales for larger species may be platform scales that can weigh up to 1000 lb. Different size digital scales are suitable for different animals. Some standard size platforms include 20” x 27”, 22” x 44”, and even larger sizes up to 27” x 60”. Depending on the type of animal, specially sized animal scales up to 48” x 48” may also be fabricated.

Veterinary scales for even the largest animals, such as hippos and elephants, are available with capacities up toe 20,000 lb. Of course, these large floor scales have much larger platforms. They start at sizes of 4’ x 4’. Some other popular sizes are 4’ x 6’, 5’ x 7’, and 6’ x 8’. Again, even larger size floor scales may be specially fabricated, up to platform sizes of 8’ x 12’.

With all of the platform scales and large floor scales, one of the most important features is the ruggedness and durability of the digital scale. Perhaps the most critical components of the scale are the load cells that are attached to the scale platform. These devices convert the weight on the platform into an electrical signal that may be converted into a digital number to be shown on the electronic indicator. While many veterinary scales utilize aluminum load cells, they may be quite susceptible to damage from shock loading. This may easily occur when the scales are moved to different locations within the zoo. A much better choice for the load cell material is stainless steel. Not only is it much less likely to be damaged when the scale is handled, but it is also more resistant to moisture and corrosive fluids that animal scales are subjected to. A further advantage is that stainless steel is stronger than aluminum, so the load cells may be smaller. This allows the scale platform to offer a lower profile, making it easier for the animals to step up onto it. Some higher quality veterinary scales, such as those manufactured by Arlyn Scales, only use stainless steel load cells for all of their scales, including the bench scales, platform scales and large floor scales.

Depending on the type of animal being weighed, the material of the platform may also be important. Welded aluminum is an excellent choice, as it will not rust when exposed to water, and is quite light in weight. This makes it easier to move the scale. If the animal scale is meant to be used for weighing sea animals, such as seals, which live in a salt water environment, it is preferable to select a scale that is fabricated entirely from stainless steel.
ArlyScales.com’ goal is to provide clients with superiority in equipment and service unrivaled in the scale industry. For almost 30 years Arlyn has manufactured top of the line industrial weighing equipment with an accent on quality, accuracy, advanced technology and durability. From Zoo Scales to Industrial scales and everything in between.

 The rain forest is home to over 50% of all the animals in the world. There are millions of different species of animals in the world’s rain forests.

Butterfly

Some kinds of butterflies have special wing patterns that tell other animals that they are poisonous. Other edible butterflies try to copy this same pattern, allowing them to trick predators.

Chameleon

Chameleons are a kind of lizard that can change color as the light or temperature changes, or when it is scared.  The chameleon has a very long sticky tongue that darts out of its mouth to catch insects. Chameleons grow up to twenty-five inches long.

Gorilla

Gorilla’s live mostly in Zaire, and are very large. They can be up to 5′6″ tall and weigh 600 pounds, with an arm span of 9 feet. Gorilla’s have coarse black hair. Even though they are very gentle animals, their scary appearance makes them disliked, so they are portrayed as large (true), scary (false), and cruel (false).

Jaguar

Jaguars can climb trees and swim to catch their prey, but they are known for their fast running. The jaguar is large and orange with black or brown spots, but no stripes. It likes to hunt weaker animals, so it can win without a fight.

Macaw

Macaws are mainly blue and yellow and have strong hooked beaks. They have white faces and long, colorful tails. They can be up to 39 inches long. Macaws live in South America, and there are 11 species altogether.

SLOTH

There are two kind of sloths, and both are very shy and quiet. The two kinds are the three toed sloth and the two toed sloth. They are mammals and live for about ten years. Sloths stay up in trees most of the day, almost never coming down. They like to do things upside down, even sleep!

Animals are interesting, no matter what species they are. Animals that live out in the wild, I think, are the most intriguing.

Each and every one of the wildlife mammals, reptiles and birds on our planet have an individual and unique survival plan. Each different species of wildlife animal have their own hierarchies and family structures, diets and mating rituals, just to name a few behaviours. Most animals featured here come from Africa, Asia, America and Australia. For animals from the British Isles, you can visit our new section, British Wildlife.

With the ever increasing amount of wildlife animals becoming endangered species and their survival threatened daily, awareness must be spread.

Wildlife at Animal Corner hopes to help spread awareness as well as providing valuable and interesting wildlife animal information. By looking through our wildlife section, you can discover specific animal diets, reproduction and behaviour and which animals are constantly struggling to survive and what conservation programs are in progress to try and help those animals, some which are on the verge of extinction.

White Rhino

DESCRIPTION: This is the worlds second largest land mammal by mass.  Weighing up to three tonnes, only the African elephant is larger.

This animal is a docile and peaceful grazer of the African savannah.  Unfortunately, because of human intervention and the belief in many countries of the East that rhino horn has magical properties, the horn commands an extremely high price.  This has led to rhino populations throughout the world being decimated in this century.

STATUS AND DISTRIBUTION: There are 5 distinct species, the Asian: one horned (around 2400), the Black: (around 3100), the White: (around 11670), the Sumatran: (around 300) and the Javan: (around 60 animals left).  The numbers given are recent estimates.

They are so vulnerable to mans weapons, there was possibly only 30 White rhinos left at the end of the last century. The word ‘white’ is derived from the Afrikaans word for wide, and relates to its wide mouth, not its colour.  This mouth acts as a giant lawnmower taking up vast quantities of grass.

The horns of rhino are unusual in that they lie along the middle of the snout and do not have a bony centre. They are made of many fibres of the same chemical that makes hair and nails. Sadly the Far Eastern cultures prize rhino horn for its so-called medicinal properties. Even though it is only the same as finger nails. In parts of Arabia the horns are used as a status symbol and made into dagger handles. To get the horns the animals are killed.

LIFE HISTORY: Rhinos rely mostly on their sense of smell and they have rather poor vision. Their hearing is good. Rhinos make many sounds, from roars and squeals to bleats, they sound too gentle for such massive animals.

Here at South Lakes we have four Wide Lipped Rhinos. Two males - Mazungo, born at Whipsnade and Hubbke, born at Safari Beekse Bergen. They were joined by Tala and Ntombi on the 28th September 2003, who arrived from a reserve in South Africa. Planned breeding should take place in 2004/5.