Fosa is one of Madagascar's endemites, animals that are only on this island. It looks like a cat and is the largest beast in Madagascar. "The Midongy male can now be seen in the Carnivore Pavilion, where it is only located for a temporary period. Once the rebuilding of the Bird World, where the imitation of the dry areas of Madagascar, the biotope typical of the Phoenix, is completed, Midongy will be relocated here. There will be an indoor exposition and an outdoor enclosure, " says Michal Podhrázský, zoo zoo's plans.
In the new premises will find a home also a female that the zoo plans to bring this year. "Fosse are loners, animals converge only in mating season. That is why the male and female will spend most of the year separately, " explains Michal Podhrázský.
The main features of these beasts that feed on birds, eggs, or even lemurs are the elastic body measuring 70 to 80 cm in length, covered with brown to rusty hair and penetrating eyes. Their weight is between 5.5 and 8.6 kg. Males are larger than females. Thanks to retractable claws and a strong tail they are perfectly suited to climb trees. They are heavily territorial animals, the boundaries of their territory are carefully marked by a profoundly smelly secretion. They are more active at night.
Bitter females last for three months. The females are born blind and toothless in the number of one to six in the litter.
The Dvůr Králové Zoo was the first garden in the Czech Republic and the fifth zoo in the world where the fos was breeding. Since the mid-1980s, when the first representatives of this species were there, 16 babies were born and reared up to 2010.
Source: tz ZOO Dvur Kralove, Wikipedia
Photo to tz: Jakub Labský, Dvůr Králové Zoo