ZooBorns

Name a Penguin Chick in New England!

Since late May, the New England Aquarium has hatched eleven healthy African Penguin chicks in their special "hatching room." Having grown steadily since then, they are now ready for their public debut in the main exhibit.

With so many chicks, they are looking for help naming them. Submit your suggestions between now and Sunday, 8/22. They are looking for names that will build awareness about African Penguin conservation. For example, an older penguin was named Treasure, after the devastating MV Treasure oil spill off the coast of South Africa in 2000. Our suggestions? Pingu McHabitatdestruction or Avon Squawksdale...

Photo credits: New England Aquarium

If any of you ZooBorns readers have your suggestions picked, please let us know, and we'll share the good news on our Facebook page!

Brown Stripes for a Baby Zebra

A Grant’s Zebra was born Saturday, July 31 at the Kansas City Zoo to Mom, Jet, and Dad, Zanthus. She has brown stripes instead of black and weighed in at 79 pounds. Brown stripes are natural among newborn zebras; they will turn to black when she is between 9 and 18 months old. Every zebra has a different pattern of stripes. The stripes help them avoid predator attacks as they make it hard for a zebra hungry hunter to single out one animal from a fleeing herd.

Photo credits: Kansas City Zoo

Meet Yuri the Tiger Cub

Amur Tiger "Anna" gave birth to a male cub in May named Yuri. This is Anna's first cub at the Erie Zoo. Unfortunately Yuri needed to be separated from his mom after he got a cut on his neck from some rough carrying by mom and over grooming. Luckily animal keepers took great care of little Yuri and he is now doing well.

Photo Credits: Erie Zoo

One-Year-Old "Little" Elephant Tips the Scales

Last week at the U.K.'s Twycross Zoo, Ganesh the baby elephant celebrated his first birthday.  Ganesh weighed in at a tremendous 300 kilograms or roughly 660 pounds! The "toddler" shares a birthday with his auntie Tara, who turned 12 on the same day.

Photo Credits: The Twycross Zoo

Red Panda Cub Gets a Check-up

Vets at the UK's Chester Zoo got their fist opportunity to get a proper look at their new Red Panda cub, who has been kept away from prying eyes by its doting mum (except for these awesome pictures). The cub’s check-up went well with a clean bill of health and a snazzy new microchip (just in case). But the real excitement came when they discovered that the cub was female, a first for Chester Zoo! Keepers are now thinking of a suitable name for the newcomer.

It is expected that the cub will become more independent from September onwards.  She is the sixth cub for nine year old mother Lushui and father is Pali who came to the Zoo from Germany.

 

A Handful of Baby Tenrecs

In late June, the WCS Bronx Zoo welcomed two baby Lesser Hedgehog Tenrecs. While they might look like hedgehogs, and even have hedgehog in their name, they are actually a totally different family of mammals. Tenrec species come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, with some looking like hedgehogs, some like mice, and some even like otters!

Photo credits: Julie Larsen Maher / WCS Bronx Zoo

Snow Leopards Cubs Debut in Oklahoma

On May 12th, the Oklahoma City Zoo welcomed two little Snow Leopard cubs but waited until the cubs had had their second round of shots and time to bond with mom before debuting them to the public yesterday. This is the second set of cubs for mother Kiara, who was born at the Tulsa Zoo. Despite being bottle-fed herself, Kiara has proven to be a capable and attentive mother. The cubs are still too young, and the weather too hot, for the cubs to go outside but they will make it out within a few weeks.

Photo credits: Oklahoma City Zoo (see more on their Facebook album)

Elderly Mom Surprises All in Tel Aviv

There is happy news at the Tel Aviv Zoological Center. Rochale, a 41 year old female Orangutan, has given birth to a healthy infant. A decade earlier, Rochale gave birth to Tel Aviv's last Orangutan arrival. In the interim, many attempts had been made to expand the center's Orangutan population including bringing two young females, Sisi and Tusi, from Germany. To the surprise of all, Rochale, Tel Aviv's oldest female, is carrying the torch for a second time!

Older mom Rochale has experience with raising healthy babies...

Photo Credits: Tibor Jager / Tel Aviv Zoological Center

Swaddled in Flamingo Down

Last week the Franklin Park Zoo outside of Boston welcomed a new Chilean Flamingo chick. These flamingos create nests out of mounds of mud, which can reach two feet tall.  A single egg is laid and is incubated by both the parents, who also jointly raise the chick. Thanks to photographer S. Woodruff for sharing these images.

"When is it my turn?"

Last week our pal Hasani, the Western Lowland Gorilla at San Francisco Zoo, made headlines. His adoptive Mom Bawang picked up a boy's dropped Nintendo DS and began to try and figure it out.  Photographer Christina Spicuzza was on hand to record every moment. Bawang wasn't so eager to share "her" new toy with Hasani. That didn't stop the curious little fellow from trying to get a game in before the DS was safely returned to the boy by keepers.

First, a boy dropped his Nintendo NDS into the Gorilla enclosure. Bawang was more than happy to swoop it up and investigate.

It wasn't long before Hasani had to see what was going on.

Bawang tried to figure it out.

That way didn't work, so she flipped it over.

Then they held it really close to their eyes hoping to see something through it.

"OK Mom, let the pro try!"

Photo and Video Credits: Christina Spicuzzi

Above Photo Credit: Eva Thorensen / San Francisco Zoo

Hasani in his infancy at the SF Zoo.  No stranger to human games like Peek-a-Boo.