"ZooBorns pulls off the difficult task of being cute and interesting for people of all ages while also being informative. Many books seek this lofty goal but most fail." - Seattle Post Intelligencer
The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo today debuted the first baby Aardvark ever born at the zoo. The new male Aardvark, nicknamed Hoover, was born in September to parents Dora and Arthur. Hoover spends all of his time with his mother and will continue to nurse until he is three months old. Zoo-goers can see the Aardvarks in their naturalistic nocturnal exhibit in the Carter Giraffe Building. The Bronx Zoo was the first North American zoo to exhibit Aardvarks in 1924. The zoo’s current Aardvark exhibit opened in 2008.
Giant Panda mom, Lun-Lun, gave birth to a tiny pink cub on November 3rd at Zoo Atlanta. At that time, the cub was hairless and helpless, like all panda cubs at that age. One month later, the cub is hairy but still helpless as we see in this special behind-the-scenes veterinary check-up video below. Heather Baker Roberts, Carnivore Keeper II, gave a detailed update yesterday on the Zoo's panda blog. "The cub is becoming more active each day. When Lun Lun leaves him alone, he wiggles and exercises his muscles. He works one back leg as if to scratch himself or he manages to turn himself around on the floor.
(continued from above "Most importantly, he can right himself when he ends up on his back. Just last week, if he accidentally rolled onto his back while Lun Lun was away, he was very unhappy – flailing his legs in the air and squawking loudly until Lun Lun rushed back and picked him up. He was like a stranded tortoise! But now he has developed enough muscle strength to roll himself over onto his stomach fairly quickly when he is supine. I am actually surprised he can roll over at all since his belly is so fat, but I have seen him do it several times in recent days. This is a big step for the little guy!"
Binder Park Zoo is proud to announce another addition to its family. On November 9, 2010, in the wee hours of the morning, a baby Red-capped Mangabey monkey was born. This is Binder Park Zoo’s first birth of this species since it began exhibiting them in 1999 with the opening of Wild Africa. “The zoo has been working diligently with AZA (American Association of Zoos and Aquariums) for ten years to bring together a pair of animals that would have all the right attributes for a successful breeding” said Jenny Barnett, Director of Wildlife Management Conservation and Education. The mother is a 4 year old that was brought in from the Denver Zoo in late 2009, and the father, a 20 year old male, was brought in from the Houston Zoo in 2000.
The other day, we brought you news of Zoo Miami's Pygmy Hippo baby. Zookeepers are now asking the public to help choose between four names. "Nzuri", which means beautiful, "Nyumbani", meaning home, "Leona", a reference to Sierra Leone, and "Asali", meaning honey; a tribute to one of the Zoo's Hippo's which passed away last year. You can visit the zoo's survey now and cast your vote!
Check below the fold to view more images of the calf.
One of our favorite amateur zoo photographers, Tambako the Jaguar, brings us our first pictures from Denmark's Aalborg Zoo and they are outstanding. A three month old Amur Tiger cub, also known as a Siberian Tiger, takes some of her first adventurous steps exploring her new enclosure. The largest living cat, this majestic species once roamed from Turkey to China but is now confined to an isolated area in the Amur region of far eastern Siberia. On a side note, it looks like Aalborg also has a young Polar Bear cub. We hope to share pictures soon.
We wanted to say thanks to all you ZooBorns fans so we put together this special Advent-style calendar to ring in the New Year. Each day another door will be available for you to open! Click on the graphic to check it out.
