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Mountain Zebra

Klipspringer

Walia Ibex

Abbot's Duiker

What's going on up there? Luca is having a nice time with a woman who dresses a lab coat right in front of the Tea House! You can't hear what are they talking about, but you notice how nice is their chat because they can't stop laughing! When you're close, Luca comes towards you and then introduces: - Oh! There you are! I'm eager about showing you what's there behind the third bulky gate! You three, standing there, quit talking. Just the Stegodon trumpet breaks the silence. - Sorry! - breaks Luca - Let me introduce you to this gorgeous lady! This is Dr. Parvati Kerr. She will tell you a few things and will join the tour for the next zoo area. - Nice to meet you! - says Parvati - Luca has told me several things about you! Are you enjoying the park? I bet you do! You start walking across the bulky gates. She stops right in front of a building. Parvati explains then: - Sure you've already seen the Thawed Out Park zoo map. Didn't you? - inquires Parvati - If you did, sure you wonder what is that hotspot pointed as "G. A. T. I. C. O.". Let me explain. These are the research team headquarters. All you see and all that became the Thawed Out Park started some time ago with my team of coworkers. The GATICO acronym stands after Guidance for Ambiental Transition for the Introduction of Cats Observatory. Our first objective was the restoration of some lost and endangered cats like barbary lion or sumatran tiger. Nevertheless, call it serendipity or whatever you want, our breakthroughs drove us further, to the restoration of extinct feline species. - GATICO now works as both the main lab for extinct species clonning and as a museum where guests may get information about the conservation of endangered and extinct feline species, and its name is the spanish word for "kitty"! - explains Luca - Dr. Parvati is the leader of the GATICO research team. I'd like to show you our facilities, but the staff is quite jealous about their work. However, you may take the museum tour. The souvenirs include cat themed glasses, so you can then after go to the photo booth and shoot your silliest angles! - During our first prototype tests, we found that our method had a small posibility of restoring even older species - explains Parvati -. So, we developed a pilot test which, after several attempts, successfully brought back the extinct Cave Lion! A feline species that went lost when more efficient predators, like wolves, appeared across Eurasia was now almost walking again at our facilities! We had a short discussion about halting the experiment right there, when we noticed about that chance of demonstrating if Cave Lion was a subspecies of african lions! That study conclusions just came to reinforce the most recent research about Cave Lion being an actual independent species! - With these results, of course we would try a second time! The following GATICO research program restored the ravenous Homotherium, an extinct feline that gave us interesting discoveries! Homotherium has a quite unique feature: Theit teeth were flat and had a serrated edge, being the reason of its common name: scimitar tooth cat. Those lethal teeth, in adition to its body shape is what give us the depiction of a mammoth slayer. When we ran the Homotherium project, Luca and I haven't met yet, so mammoths weren't in our plans. Despite being plausible, we won't make a clash test between my cats and his mammoths. Homotherium voracius nature will remain in mystery... They look suspiciously peaceful, so we don't want to dare them! - With two restored extinct cat species, my team toke part of a more ambitious project. The best known ancient cat species is obviously Smilodon, better known as saber tooth cat. Despite what you may think when you see them, its name is not due their huge canine teeth! Their actual "knife teeth" are their incisors! We expected the Smilodon restoration project to be quite long, but the remains were in an spectacular condition that allowed us to recover this cat faster than we tought on first place! And that's not all. If you paid attention to the GATICO museum tour, the modern clouded leopar has the widest jaw aperture, with around 90 degree. In order to use those huge canine teeth, Smilodon's jaw aperture reached 120 degree! - The last extinct species below the GATICO's surveilance is exceptional, as it is not an actual feline, but its program is aiding in the understanding of modern and ancient cats behavior. Thylacosmilus is not an actual feline. Actually, the puss at your home is closely related to Smilodon or Homotherium unlike this one, because Thylacosmilus is actually a marsupial. Yes! Like kangaroos or possums! Our team chose for a non feline animal for our fourth project so we can uncover several things about their evolution, because most of Thylacosmilus habits aren't preserved in extant species. Also, their teeth are incredible! They grow lifelong and start over their eyes! Thawed Out Park's logo is intended to be the huge teeth of the four projets that started it all before the eventual 45 new projects! - When the news of a non feline extinct animal project by GATICO researchers came to my knowledge - starts Luca -, I made my first trip to Kathmandu where I met Dr. Parvati for the first time. At those days, I was working on the previous park I already showed you. Yes: The Aussie Tour Park. We spoke about bussiness and we got an agreement: I'd found their research if they let me and my team to do research at their facilites. So, I toke their fifth proyect of a cat like extinct species, so I can introduce it at my Australian theme park: the Thylacoleo! My team used GATICO installations and procedures and we achieved our first goal! - After our first research program together, we kept talking. A new project started, followed by so many others and... Now we're here! The second restored australian animal I brought to Aussie Tour Park was Diprotodon. And sure now you wonder "Wait! You told that Thawed Out Park doesn't work on dinosaur research, but at the Aussie Tour Park you have both Muttaburrasaurus and Australovenator... How is it then?" Hahaha! Of course I toke also Meiolania from Thawed Out Park to Aussie Tour Park, but the dinosaur projects are my tiny secret! I'll tell you later! - It was nice to attach your trip on this small piece of a huge road! - says Dr. Parvati. She stands right in front of the Aussie Tour didgeridoo store - From now on, I let you keep your way just you two! GATICO children, and with children I mean the staff themselves, need their babysitter back again, or they start to fool around and quit working! Anything you need, you know where to find me! Until very soon! - We're now at the second corner of the park -begins Luca when Parvati leaves your eyesight meters away, on a path turn -. On this side, you won't deal with bothering noisy food stands or smelly ugly to see trash cans. You may take that bridge and enjoy the Relaxing Gardens! The wind caresses the planters and the slow movements of the animals dwelling there. Let you drown in the peace of the silent spot of the park! The bridge arises above the exhibit of Scelidotherium, the first sloth of the Relaxing Gardens! This sloth differentiate from others by its narrow head. - These sloths have historic meaning! Scelidotherium first remains were depicted by Charles Darwin itself during his journey across South America! Unfortunately, he assigned Scelidotherium remains to another species. On the other hand, the second sloth below the bridge in its small snowy woods was depicted by the former USA president Thomas Jefferson! That's why Megalonyx is aslo known as Jefferson's ground sloth! Its official naming toke place almost 30 years after that and Jefferson named Megalonyx before he reached the presidential chair, but to cultural significance, is an ancient species "with a presidential link". - But close to Megalonyx and Scelidotherium, the largest of these sloths was, indubiously Megatherium, also perhaps the most popular and better studied from giant sloths. This fluffy pal, due to its enormous size, had almost no competitors in the food race. We have almost no interrogants about sloths diet, but there are so many theories about these beasts being scavengers. And that might be possible, but about scavengers we'll talk about later! - At the end of the Relaxing Gardens, we have two more friends. They're not that big, nor that fluffy. They're armored instead! The first one resembles a bit of dinosaurs like Ankylosaurus or Euoplocephalus, but it's actually a mammal related to modern armadillos! The main thing about Doedicurus is its thorny tail. We're on or way about finding if that armoured tail is some sort of defense against predators or if males used them in combats during reproductive season. - The neigbour and the second corner of the zoo is Glyptodon. They also had an armoured tail, but instead of a club mass, theirs is covered by bony spiked plaques! Have a rest at this area until you're restored! I'll be wating for you near the Thylacoleo exhibit! We're finally going across the electric gates! So, mind yourself for the last part of the journey! When Luca leaves, you take your time to go and sit next to the Megatherium exhibit, next to a fountain. The sloth slowly stands and gently extends an arm, reaches a branch of a tree and pulls it towards itself. The tree trembles and finally jumps back to its original position when the claw rips the plant. The slot crushes the leaves within its mouth. The breeze raises a bunch of leaves in the air. The green and brown leaves falls across the path and finally two of them find their last destiny next to you. One of them is flexible and green, meanwhile the other one is fragile and brown. You wait for the wind to take those leaves alongside it, when the sloth does a second blow to the tree, blasting a new generation of leaves into the garden. The fountain is now full of dead nature like fishes and frogs having a nice time on a pond. You stand up and find your shoulders full of dried leaves and blossoms. As you take your way to the bridge, a third bump to the tree takes place, but you only hear it. - That was quite short! - says Luca when you reach the Aussie Tour souvenir store again - Now, we're just standing in front of the electric gate that safeguards us from a containment breach on the other side. Do you wanna know now?

Mountain Reedbuck

Mountain Nyala

Ethiopian Wolf

Blue Winged Goose

Verreaux's eagle

Nilgiri tahr

Kashmir stag

Western tragopan

Snow Sheep