ZooBorns

Milking a Killer Whale

In October we brought you the story of Loro Parque's newborn Killer Whale calf. Today we received an update from this Spanish aquarium with some fascinating footage. Unfortunately the mother Orca was not feeding her baby properly so aquarists stepped in to hand feed the rambunctious calf. In order to do this, keepers needed to extract milk from mom. Lucky for them, mom seems happy to oblige as seen in the video at the bottom. In the first video, we get up close and personal with the calf as he bottle feeds. 

Jaguar Twins in Tenerife

While one may sport a smooth black coat and the other a scattering of spots, these two adorable Jaguar cubs are in fact siblings; the latest set of twins to arrive at Loro Parque in Tenerife, Spain. Taking after their parents with their strikingly different coats, these inquisitive 4 week old cats are growing in strength day by day thanks to their mother's constant attention. Jaguars are generally tawny yellow with black rosettes, however 6% of this big cat family possess an almost entirely black coat, a trait shared by one of the cubs and mom. A "near threatened" species, the jaguar's numbers in the wild are in decline which is why breeding programs such as those at Loro Parque are key to preserving the population of this majestic feline.

Photo / footage credit: Ulrich Brodde, Loro Parque Tenerife

Two Baby Two-toed Sloths

Keepers at Loro Parque, in Tenerife, were seeing double this September when mother sloth Bimba gave birth to two a set of twins. Following the birth, the Loro Parque veterinary team stepped in to hand-raise one of the babies as the mother was only able to care for one offspring. Staff member Kirsten became a surrogate mum, tending to the baby Two-toed Sloth at the on-site clinic and taking her "new baby" home every night, where it sleeps next to her bed in a make-shift cot with a toy gorilla for company (see the video!). Both sloths are healthy and progressing well and the park will reunite the twins at a later date. 

Photo credits: Loro Parque Tenerife / Ulrich Brodde

 

Loro Parque Welcomes Killer Whale Calf

Two baby Killer Whales in just two days! Loro Parque, located in Spain's Canary Islands, welcomed its first orca calf yesteday. Veterinarians, biologists and other experts, watched anxiously over the four hours of labor. Moments after the birth, the onlookers were relieved to see the healthy newborn calf instinctively rise to the surface and take its first breath. The baby weighs 150 kilograms (330 lbs) and measures 2 meters (6.5 feet) long. The conservation status of Killer Whales is poorly understood and scientists are working hard to determine if one or more types of different Killer Whales may be distinct endangered species. 

Special thanks to ZooBorns reader Juan Villalba for alerting us to this birth.