With ears like satellite dishes, serval cat makes Milwaukee County Zoo debut along with Malayan chevrotains

If visitors don't notice the black spots and stripes first, they definitely see the ears.

Amos' ears seem way too big for his head but then servals, a cat at home on the African savannah, are known for the appendages that seem almost like furry satellite dishes protruding from their heads.  

"If (humans) had ears their size, they would be the size of dinner plates," said Sheri Guay, a zookeeper in the Milwaukee County Zoo's Florence Mila Borchert Big Cat Country.

The Milwaukee County Zoo hasn't had a serval since 1993. On Thursday, Amos, a 9-year-old male born in captivity in Idaho, was formally introduced to zoo visitors.

Also unveiled Thursday were a pair of Malayan chevrotains, half-sisters Opal and Rain, who recently took up residence in the aviary.

Servals hunt by stalking their prey in savannah grasses and pouncing, so they need good hearing to detect the scratchings of mice and rats. And because servals are also preyed upon by bigger cats, they need to know if danger is a leap away.

Since Amos arrived from the zoo in Little Rock, Ark., he's slowly acclimating to his quarters, the former home of the cheetahs, who now spend most of their time outside. It's likely Amos was not within eyesight of lions before coming to Milwaukee and now he can gaze out to the adjacent living area where the lions hang out.

Guay said Amos is sassy and spends much of his time hissing at zookeepers.

"We're always excited to have a new cat. It's fun to get to know their personalities,"  Guay said.

As Amos lifted his tail to leave a scent on the side of his enclosure, Guay explained that the 32-pound feline is fed twice a day, a morning snack and a late afternoon meal of horse meat hamburger and whole mice, chicks and small rats. For enrichment, zookeepers spray buck urine scent in Amos' enclosure and string a zip line to hang bags of mice and chicks so the serval can use his superior jumping skills to nab a treat.

In the zoo's lush aviary, Malayan chevrotains 1-year-old Rain, and Opal, 2, have quietly become a part of the area shared by several birds — Luzon bleeding-heart doves, black-naped fruit doves, white-cheeked bulbuls and the white-rumped shama. It's the first time hoofed stock have taken up residence in the aviary, but the small mammals are so quiet and neighborly, they quickly fit right in, aviary keeper Bryan Kwiatkowski said.

"The chevrotains are not as high energy as other animals," Kwiatkowski said. "We thought the aviary would be good because they're not aggressive animals and we want to make sure the birds will continue breeding."

They're typically called mouse deer even though they're not deer or mice. Their name derives from the French word for goat, even though they're not part of the goat family, either. 

Opal and Rain share a mother and arrived recently from the Bronx Zoo, which has organized a successful chevrotain breeding program for several years. The last time the Milwaukee zoo had chevrotains was in 1995 when they lived in the small-mammal building.

Their condos are two small boxes with small openings on the ground, though on Thursday, both Rain and Opal had wedged themselves into the same box.

Each weighing around 5½ pounds, Rain is fairly shy while Opal is more outgoing. Zookeepers can tell them apart by Rain's prominent three white stripes on her throat. They love running through a sprinkler; they nosh on kale, carrots and sweet potatoes and think romaine lettuce is incredibly tasty.

Aviary keepers are fairly stoked to get residents without feathers, for once.

"We normally work just with birds," Kwiatkowski said. "They have been settling in quite nicely."