Kare11
Minnesota Zoo gives rare look at private tiger den
The striped siblings were born in May and are growing quickly. Discover their diet, sleeping quarters and more in this KARE 11 Extra.
APPLE VALLEY, Minn. — The time is 7:30 a.m. at the Minnesota Zoo, and it opens at 9.
Zookeeper Maggie Estby is knocking out a number of tasks, like preparing breakfast for a family of endangered tigers. And forget Frosted Flakes! These guys eat horse meat with added vitamins and nutrients.
Toronto Zoo researchers developed the diet, and it allows snacks.
“I’m just gonna put some gloves on first,” Estby said. “This is chunk muscle meat. We use this as kind of like treat meat … This is something the cats usually really enjoy.”
Now Estby leads the way to a behind-the-scenes den, where everyone must mask up to help protect the tigers from COVID, she says.
“So if you guys wanna just make sure the bar door is closed behind you,” she said.
And there they all are, including two special cubs. Brother and sister Andre and Amalia were born at the Zoo back in May as part of an international species survival plan.
“We’re getting to the point where we do have to separate the cubs when we’re feeding them,” Estby said.
But filial piety: Estby feeds their parents and older siblings first.
“This is dad, Luca, down here,” she said. “Hi buddy. Good morning.”
Whether wild or zoo, tiger fathers don’t have anything to do with their cubs after breeding is over. So, the twins stay close to their mom, Dari. After all, they’re still nursing. Plus, Dari’s a pro. This is her third and likely last liter.
Dari’s backstory stands on its own, but in short: Dari’s mother neglected her and the Minnesota Zoo intervened to keep the lineage alive. Curator Diana Weinhardt has known Dari since she was born.
“Well, it took a little bit of work, but she’s got a great team,” Weinhardt said. “We all went to garage sales and just got a bunch of toys for her when she was a cub, and now her cubs are – we have sturdier equipment now, but these cubs are, they’re tough!”
“They’re getting very, very, vocal,” Estby said between roars.
But no one’s upset. The cubs are just finding their voice, she said.
“She’s chuffing at me when I do that, which is a friendly greeting,” said Dr. Annie Revis while joining Estby on the other side of the den at around 8 a.m. for a mock medical check.
Revis is the Minnesota Zoo’s director of animal health.
“This has been my dream job,” Revis said. “I’ve wanted to be a vet and really a zoo vet since I was 3 years old.”
In the mock medical check, the cubs take turns lining up and laying down between two wooden boards.
“Lay down,” Revis said. “There you go, good.”
They’re rewarded with treats, just like a house pet. By the way, Andre weighs about the size of a large dog, 50 pounds. Amalia, 45 — and growing.
“Especially going into winter here, we want them to kind of keep that cub chub on,” Estby said. “It’s easy to tell them apart from a distance by their tails.”
Dr. Reevis is now lightly pinching their furry butts – and not just cuz they’re cute. It’s so they can get used to human touch and the feel of an injection.
“All of our tigers get very similar vaccines that your domestic cat would get, so rabies vaccines, the feline viral diseases and the kind of unique one is they also get vaccinated for canine distemper, which is, you know, thought of as a dog problem but our big cats are also susceptible to it,” Revis said.
The cubs were vaccinated shortly after birth and are caught up on shots now. They’re not taking any meds either.
“So, unless there’s a problem, we don’t check on them,” Revis explained.
But for this demo, Dr. Reevis shines a flashlight to check their golden-brown eyes.
Now it’s 8:30 a.m. and Estby must prepare the public tiger den. She carries outside what looks like three silicone bunt cake pans and places them spaciously apart on the ground.
“This is a bloodsicle,” Estby said. “This is the blood leftover from where we get their meat … Mix it with a little bit of water, freeze it, and it becomes an awesome treat for these guys.”
Next, she sprays perfume on a large pumpkin and other enrichment items on the ground like antlers and tree logs.
“It’s just perfume,” Estby said with a chuckle. “Yep, this is actual body spray for humans and they love it.”
Now, she’s checking the entire perimeter for any openings in the fence. This is a very important step.
“I mean, we’re putting tigers out there, which is very dangerous, and overnight you never know what happened,” Estby said. “You know, trees fall. Storms happen. It gets windy.”
She also checks around for new scratch marks. Zookeepers want to protect the trees from big cat claws, so sometimes they wrap them to discourage the tigers from climbing up too far.
Guess what also travels far: tiger pee! So Estby wipes down the windows every morning to ensure visitors have a clear view of the glass.
And already, she can see some guests. That’s because people with Minnesota Zoo Memberships are allowed onto the grounds early.
In fact, the Minnesota Zoo reports every day since September, when the striped siblings made their public debut, zoo members have been showing up in time to catch the moment Dari and her cubs enter the den for the day.
“They’re so very cute,” one zoogoer said.
“I just want to cuddle ’em,” another responded.
The cubs always stay out until only Dari decides it’s time to go back to the private sleeping quarters, which on this day turns out to be 1:45 p.m. Tigers are mostly nocturnal, you know.
The Minnesota Zoo is currently open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, including weekends.
Kare11
Rescue! – A chase, a crash and martial arts store workers race to save mother and babies in Fenton.
Employees of a Fenton martial arts school ran to the aid of a mother and her babies after the rollover crash. They said their training helped them rescue the family.
FENTON, Mo. — Employees at a martial arts business in Fenton rushed to save a mother and her twin eight-month-old babies after their vehicle was struck during a police pursuit involving federal officers on Interstate 44 in Fenton.
Surveillance video captured the moment a car being pursued by the DEA and Homeland Security struck the woman’s car on Wednesday.
Those who helped rescue them said it was a miracle they walked away alive.
The woman’s car flipped multiple times from the interstate, over the fence, and onto South Highway Drive before it landed in front of Xtreme Krav Maga & Fitness in Fenton.
“All of a sudden, I heard a car crash, screeching noise, and my fellow employee, Lindsay, was here at the front counter, and she said, ‘Oh, that’s not good,'” said Dustin Pluth, a manager at the business.
Within seconds, Pluth sprang into action, running outside to the car.
“It was just kind of an instinct thing. Once I saw the car rolling, coming to a halt, and running up to it, I found a mom and two babies inside,” he said.
Pluth cut the mom’s seatbelt off to get her out and pulled her twin babies out of the sunroof. Then another employee, Lindsay Cross, comforted the mom while walking them inside to get warm.
“She was very terrified of just being in a car wreck number one, not knowing what was going on. She didn’t know what the outcome was, and then she was obviously worried about her kids,” Pluth said.
The business offers self-defense and martial arts classes, as well as medical training and trauma-one classes, which teach people how to become first responders.
Pluth said it’s training that helped them rescue the family.
“Luckily, the good people in this scenario had a few scratches on them, but it could’ve been a worse Christmas. And as a dad, kids being injured is the worst fear ever,” he said.
Of all places for a car accident to end, Pluth said it was the best result of a bad situation.
“She got handled and cared for, and the babies were cared for probably as quickly as we possibly could do. It’s definitely a Christmas miracle that it happened here, and they came as unscathed as possible,” Pluth said.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said several suspects were taken into custody following the federal police pursuit.
Pluth said the mom was a little banged up, but thankfully, they’re all doing well.
Tracie Munce, owner of Merlin’s Rest, joined KARE 11 Saturday to discuss the upcoming singalong and share a dish.
MINNEAPOLIS — A neighborhood bar in south Minneapolis is sharing a popular recipe and announcing the return of a favorite holiday tradition.
Merlin’s Rest, which has been in the Longfellow neighborhood for nearly two decades, will host its annual pub carol singalong on Sunday, Dec. 22·from 2 to 4 p.m.
Merlin’s not only has the most extensive selection of single malt Scotch and Irish whiskey in the state, but it also serves award-winning pub classics like bangers and mash and authentic fish and chips.
Owner Tracie Munce joined KARE 11 Saturday to discuss the upcoming singalong and share a dish.
Recipe: Beef Wellington
- 3lb ribeye roast
- ¾ cups Beef Stock
- Steak seasoning
- 1 ¼ lb crimini mushroom
- ½ shallots
- ¼ onion
- 4 Tbls garlic
- 1 long stalks of rosemary
- 1 TBS bisto gravy mix mixed with 1 TBS cold water
- 1 cups water mixed with 1TBS beef base and 1 TBS garlic base
- 8oz of sliced and diced thinly Ham
- Puff pastry sheets
Coat thawed ribeye with oil and sprinkle steak seasoning all over the roast, cook each side for about 5-8 minutes then transfer to a roaster with about 1-2 cups of beef stock, fat side up. Cover with aluminum foil and roast at 350 degrees for 2 hours – remove from the roaster and let rest – save the juice for gravy.
Clean and quarter mushrooms and place into a food processor, pulse into a small dice. Rough chop shallot and add into the mushroom, pulse a few more times.
Remove rosemary leaves from stem & rough chop, combine with mushrooms and shallots
In a large skillet add 1 Tbs butter and add the mushroom mixture, cook on medium-high heat until all the water has evaporated, about 15 minutes, put in a large bowl
Cube beef, take off fat, and add to the mushroom bowl
Thin, long slices of ham then chop and to beef and mushroom mixture. Salt and Pepper (about 1TBS of each) and combine
Dice onion and garlic and sauté in 1TBS butter until just browning, add juice from roasting the ribeye and about 1 cup of Beef stock. Let boil then add slowly the bisto slurry to thicken. Add a small amount of gravy mixture to the beef mixture to moisten – do not need much gravy.
Cut pastry into large squares and place into jumbo muffin tin. Add ½ cup of meat & mushroom mixture and pull puff over top of meat, pinching to seal everything in. Brush top with egg, and sprinkle with smoked paprika. Bake for 25-30 mins at 350
Add your side of choice with Wellington pie and a side of gravy.
Jamie Preuss from So Happy You Liked It joined KARE 11 Saturday to demonstrate how to DIY a hot buttered rum mix and homemade Irish cream.
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — There might not be anything more heartfelt at the holidays, than homemade gifts. While cookies might be your go-to… how about mixing things up, with a homemade drink mix?
Jamie Preuss from So Happy You Liked It joined KARE 11 Saturday to demonstrate how to DIY a hot buttered rum mix and homemade Irish cream.
Recipe: Hot Buttered Rum
- 1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 oz dark rum
- 6-8 oz hot water
Using a hand mixer, combine all ingredients except ice cream.
Once combined, add softened ice cream, and blend to thoroughly mix in.
Freeze the mixture for at least 2 hours.
In a mug, combine hot water, rum, and 1 heaping spoonful of mixture. Stir to dissolve.
Recipe: Homemade Bailey’s Irish Cream
- 2 T cocoa powder
- 2 t instant espresso
- 1 t vanilla
- 1 t almond
- 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup cream
- 1 1/2 cup Irish whiskey, optional
Mix cocoa and espresso powder with 2 tablespoons of hot water and mix to combine.
Add all ingredients except the cream to a blender (including whiskey if you are using it), and blend to fully combine.
Add the cream to the blender and pulse to combine. Don’t blend
too long because this will start to aerate the cream and make the drink super thick!
Transfer to 1 large or several smaller flip-top glass jars. Give them as gifts or keep them for yourself!
The mix will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
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Blinken publicly confirms U.S. officials have been in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group that ousted Assad