Miniature Pigs Jack and Jill, both five years old, became
parents to eight piglets on April 22 at Switzerland’s Zoo Basel. The eight youngsters (three boys and five
girls) are all black except for one which is pink with black spots.
Photo Credit: Zoo Basel
Jack and Jill are experienced parents, giving birth once or
twice a year. This litter of eight
piglets is a large one, so it’s pretty crowded when all eight want to nurse at
the same time. Keepers report that Jill’s
top row of teats is the most sought-after, and the piglets argue with each
other to see who gets the coveted spots.
The piglets are certainly getting enough to eat, because they’ve already
more than doubled their birth weight!
Miniature Pigs are small domestic Pigs, and are popular as
household pets.
Nale and Elan, Cheyenne
Mountain Zoo’s Porcupines, are first-time parents! Nale (nah'-lay) gave birth
to a porcupette, or baby Porcupine, on May 8. The baby
was born weighing a little over a pound and appears healthy. Zoo
veterinarians will not be able to determine if it's a boy or a girl for
approximately 30 days, at which time Zoo staff will name the newest Porcupine
addition.
Photo Credit: Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
"Porcupettes are
born with their quills - they are soft when they are first born but harden
quickly," Roxanna Breitigan, Animal Care Manager, said. "They are
also precocious from the start. Nale's porcupette is active and crawling around
the exhibit."
Nale joined the Cheyenne
Mountain Zoo family at the end of June 2012, and Elan was smitten with her
right away.
"He started
courting her almost immediately," Breitigan said.
Porcupines typically
breed in the fall and their gestation is seven months long. Zoo staff started
looking for signs of delivery starting on May 4 - Nale's first possible
due date.
One of the keepers knew something was up when Nale’s behavior changed one morning. "She noticed right away that Nale didn't
eat on Wednesday morning, wasn't climbing any trees (Nale is an
expert climber, so that was very unusual for her) and was stretching a lot. [She] kept a watchful eye and was there when the baby was born," Breitigan
said.
In the wild, males don't
usually have a role in raising their young, but Elan is being a good dad. He is
curious, interested, remains calm and keeps a watchful eye on his family from
his favorite branch.
On April 29, Isabella, the Greensboro Science Center’s (GSC)
rare and endangered Javan Gibbon, gave birth to a baby boy. In both the wild and
in zoos, it’s not unusual for first-time mother Gibbons to abandon their first
child, and that’s exactly what happened to the fragile newborn, who was discovered
alone in the Gibbon habitat. Thanks to the expert care of zoo keepers,
veterinarians, and the staff of a local hospital, the baby, named Duke, was
revived and stabilized. To give Duke the
best chance of survival, zoo staffers decided to hand-rear the baby for the
next six months until he is self-sustaining, then try to reintroduce him to his
parents, Isabella and Leon, in the exhibit.
The compelling story of Duke’s first few hours of life and
the days immediately following his discovery are detailed below.
Photo Credit: Greensboro Science Center
In the early morning of April 29, a zoo keeper discovered a
tiny, full-term baby Javan Gibbon lying without its mother inside the Gibbons’
indoor habitat. She immediately wrapped the seemingly lifeless and cold infant
into her jacket and ran back to the animal hospital. Slowly, the baby started
to warm up and began moving and vocalizing. Keepers held the baby in their arms
and up against the body for contact and continuous warmth the first critical
hours. Room temperatures were increased to 85 degrees. Once warmed and clinging
firmly to a toy Gibbon, Duke was given tiny drops of fluid to rehydrate, then
he began taking diluted formula. Duke
gained strength and opened his eyes forcing a crucial decision: Should the
staff try to introduce him back to Isabella or not? Knowing that parent
rearing is always the best option (though filled with risk given the initial
abandonment), the decision was made to introduce Duke back to his parents
approximately 30 hours after being found. After some initial nervousness,
Isabella grabbed him up in her arms and mother and son were reunited.
Unfortunately, after just 24 hours, it was clear that Duke
was weakening and likely not nursing. After much discussion, the decision was
made to hand-rear Duke knowing that staff would now need to do everything
possible to keep him in visual, vocal and olfactory contact with his parents.
Duke’s condition is stable, and the GSC staff are committed
to providing care 24 hours a day for the next six months. “Nothing in nature is about fairness. It is
about survival,” said GSC director Glenn Dobrogosz. “Duke, and hopefully his
species, will have a fighting chance thanks to keepers, curators and wildlife
biologists who dedicate their lives to preserving and protecting our world’s
wild things and wild places.”
In 2012, GSC was selected by the Association of Zoos &
Aquariums to be the second accredited zoo in the U.S. to exhibit and breed
Javan Gibbons - one of the rarest Gibbon species on the planet found only on
the island of Java in Indonesia. Duke is one of only eight born in zoos across
the world and one of three born in North America in the past 12 months.
Switzerland’s Zoo Basel welcomed a male porcupette
(baby Porcupine) on April 6. Porcupettes
are born with soft, flexible spines, which harden after a few days. The new baby lives with seven other
Porcupines in the zoo’s exhibit.
Photo Credit: Zoo Basel
Zoo Basel’s Porcupines are clicker-trained,
which allows zoo keepers to better monitor the health and well-being of these
nocturnal animals, who would rather hide than interact with keepers. The Porcupines have learned that a click
means they’ll receive a tasty bite of food, so they eagerly emerge from their
hiding places.
Porcupines are forest-dwelling rodents that
feed on tubers, bark, roots and vegetables.
See more photos of Zoo Basel's porcupette below the fold.
Last week, Antwerp Zoo in Belgium welcomed a pink, wrinkly and bald bundle of joy. Born to mom Curly, the baby Aardvark is recieving around the clock care from keepers. Though its upright ears and weight are a sign of good health, nursing has been a challenge for Curly. The cub feeds every three hours, and the keepers must often hand-nurse. Currently the sex of the cub is unknown. Once the sex has been determined, a name will be selected.
There are currently 45 Aardvarks in zoos throughout Europe and only about 30 in the US. Aadrvarks are native to sub-Saharan African, where they eat ants, termites, fruits and other insects. The name Aardvark comes from the Afrikaans word "erdvark", meaning "earth pig", likely due to the animals ability to dig and burrow.
My how they've grown! Twin Asian Golden cubs were born at Allwetter Zoo on April 7 and last Tuesday, they played and posed for the camera. Their natural beauty is evident against the pure white background.
Asiatic Golden Cats are highly threatened with extinction in the wild, so breeding them in zoos is one very important way to conserve the species. However, procreation and the successful rearing of their offspring can be tricky, so these two came into the world through artificial insemination. Click HERE for our May 3 article on this important birth, and to see their pictures as newborns.
When an aggressive virus strikes, there’s often little that can be done. Fortunately, Jackson Zoo’s dedicated animal care team was able to give the medical attention needed to rescue a litter of Red Wolf pups from a virus that had been transmitted by the pups' mother, Taladu.
The five pups, Jackson Zoo's first litter of this critically endangered species, were born on April 22nd. The three surviving pups are male and thriving under the care of zoo veterinarian, Dr. Michael Holifield. They are growing quickly and taking two to three ounces of formula at three-hour intervals. At three weeks old, two cubs weighed in at 2.3 lbs and one weighed in at 3 lbs.
Because the virus was transmitted by their mother, they will continue to be hand-raised by Dr. Holifield for a few more weeks before they return to their nursery at the zoo.
Photo credits: Jackson Zoo
See photos of the pups as newborns and learn more about Red Wolf conservation after the fold.
Paignton Zoo's Orangutan mom Mali gave birth on May 11 to what keepers are 99% sure is a little girl. She is healthy and has bonded exceptionally well with Mom. Paignton Zoo spokesperson Phil Knowling said: “Mali and baby are doing well. They have the largest of our Orangutan islands and an off-exhibit den to themselves. We hope that visitors will be able to catch a glimpse of the youngster, which will become more mobile over the coming months."
The Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) is threatened by hunting, the pet trade and the destruction of its rainforest habitat. That forest is being destroyed to create plantations producing palm oil, an ingredient found in an enormous amount of products people use daily Given the declining populations, measures such as switching to alternative oil products and maintaining sustainable populations of Orangutans in zoos are becoming ever more important. Everyone can help by reading labels at the grocery store to determine what products are made without palm oil.
Photo Credit: Photos 1, 2 4: Ray Wiltshire, Photo 3: Simon Maddock
Bornean Orangutans have suffered declines and the population is estimated at around 50,000. To put this in context, there are fewer Bornean Orangutans in the entire world than there are human beings in Torquay (the population of Torquay is about 62,000).
For the first time in over a decade, the Phoenix Zoo has a Spectacled Owl chick. The chick was born on February 10th to the zoo's pair of Spectacled Owls. The pair is quite experienced in rearing young having done so six times in the past, albeit not for some time. After over ten years without a baby, and with the female being 20 years old and the male 15, keepers were not sure if the lone egg laid would be fertile.
To the keepers' excitement, on the 10th of February they heard faint vocalizations coming from the nest box and realized they had a chick! However, it would be over a month until they were first able to peer into the nest box when the chick's protective parents were distracted and finally get a glimpse of the newborn. It was not until April 14th, just over two months after hatching, that the chick would fledge and give keepers a good look at their newest addition.
Photo credits: Amanda Donagi / Phoenix Zoo
The chick has continued to grow since fledging just over a month ago. It is slowly losing its natal fluffy down, replacing it with feathers. It has been observed flying around its exhibit and exploring all of the perches it has to offer. The chick's gender is still unknown and will be determined at its first health examination.
Known for their feisty demeanor, Tasmanian Devil babies show quite another side. These cheeky little devils are joeys from Australia's Devil Ark, the largest conservation breeding program for the Tasmanian Devil on mainland Australia. The iconic Tasmanian marsupial is at serious risk of extinction from the highly contagious Devil facial tumor disease (DFTD). Devil Ark's ambitious breeding program might be the key to its survival. It's believed that in the next 20 years the Tasmanian Devil could be extinct on Tasmania due to DFTD's rampant effects. Since its discovery in 1996, numbers of wild devils have plummeted across Tasmania, and in some areas, more than 85% of the wild population is now extinct.
So it is a battle against time! Now genetic diversity is also rapidly diminishing in Tasmania, so at Devil Ark, they are racing to breed large numbers of devils to preserve the species. There are currently more than 120 devils at the Ark and the goal is to have 360 individuals there by 2016.
Photo Credit: Devil Ark
Tasmanian Devils are known for their fierce demeanor, but watch these babies nursing and playing and you'll see a different side!
Read much more about Devil Ark and the important work they are doing below the fold:
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