ZooBorns

Wallaby Joeys Galore for Linton Zoo!

Linton Zoo's Parma Wallaby females are pouch full of Wallaby joeys! The troupe was introduced to a new male last year and they have been breeding with much success! By the end of the 1800s the Parma wallaby was declared extinct. It was not until 1965 that a small surviving population was found on Kawau Island (near Auckland). Another wild population was later found in Gosford, New South Wales in 1967. It is from these few animals that the entire current population of Parma Wallabies descends.

Below is a shot of one of the joeys in Mom's pouch when it is still hairless and too small to peek out!

Bath Time for Baby Sloths!

Wednesday mornings are baby sloth bath day at the Aviaros del Caribe-Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica. First they get shampooed, then get rubbed in an organic concoction to keep them parasite free, then they drip dry for a little before they are toweled off.  Afterwards, they get a colorful treat for being so good, and drift off into nap land. You can read more about these babies on the Sanctuary's sloth blog.

This video, from a recent documentary, includes an ad but was just too cute not to show. 

Photo Credit: Aviaros del Caribe-Sloth Sanctuary

Holiday Baby: Busch Gardens Welcomes a Little Giraffe

Florida's Busch Gardens Tampa Bay welcomed a new baby reticulated giraffe on December 27. At 5 foot, 7 inches tall (1.524 meters) and weighing approximately 127 pounds (57.6 kilos), the newborn female is the calf of father, Jafari and mother,Tesa, who has previously given birth to four other calves at Busch Gardens. She brings the park’s reticulated giraffe population to 18. The term “reticulated” refers to the giraffe’s net-like pattern of spots.

Mother and baby are currently in an area out of guest view so they can be closely monitored by zoo staff to ensure the baby is nursing and growing properly. The duo will join the other animals on the Serengeti Plain in about three months.

A giraffe’s gestation period is approximately 15 months, and the baby will nurse for about one year. This birth is part of a successful long-term breeding program at BuschGardens.

Photo Credits: Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

More pictures after the jump!

Her Name is Rio and She Fits Inside Your Hands

Rio, the first baby Agouti to be hand-raised at Australia's Taronga Zoo in 22 years, is chock full of personality. Born on December 8th, Rio is being hand-raised by keeper Simon Brown, as her mother passed away suddenly after her birth. Keeper Brown is ensuring a healthy transition to life at the zoo's Education center, by slowly but steadily helping her get accommodated to her new surroundings. You can learn all about Agouti's big adventure here on Taronga's blog post about her.

Zoo Liberec's First Baby of the Year is a Tall One!

Zoo Liberec, in Liberec, Czech Republic, welcomed a female Rothschild Giraffe calf on Saturday January 7. This first birth of the year for the Czech Zoo has zoo officials very excited, and visitors will soon be able to visit the calf in person. Rothschild Giraffes are one of the most endangered Giraffe subspecies, with only a few hundred left in the wild. It has recently been proposed that this breed of giraffe is actually a separate species of giraffe entirely.

Photo credits: Zoo Liberec

The distinguishing characteristics of Rothschild Giraffes from other Giraffe subspecies include the markings on it's pelt. While reticulated Giraffes have clearly defined dark patches separated by whitish channels, the Rothschild Giraffe, like the Masai giraffe, exhibits less sharply defined dark patches and creamier hued dividing channels. It also gives the appearance of wearing stockings, since its spots don't continue below its knee joint. The Rothschild Giraffe subspecies has a total of five horns: two on top of its head, a third horn in the center of its forehead, and two more behind its ears.

There's Snow at Philadelphia Zoo - Snow Leopard Cubs That Is!

The Philadelphia Zoo welcomed two Snow Leopard cubs to its growing animal family on June 9 when Maya, the Zoo’s 3-year-old female snow leopard, gave birth to two cubs in the afternoon. This is Maya’s first litter as well as for their father Amga, who is 5-years-old. 

Maya was in constant physical contact with them once they were born, caring for and feeding them. The first 72 hours of the cub’s life are the most critical and monitored closely by the Zoo’s animal and veterinary staff. There is video of them at a very early age after the jump.

Mother and cubs are thriving, and normally the cubs would have made their public debut at around 3 months of age, but it was delayed due minor surgery to correct eyelid abnormalities in October. In this condition, called an upper eyelid coloboma, a portion of the upper eyelid fails to develop properly, leaving a gap at the edge of the eyelid which can lead to eye irritation. The cause of this condition is not well understood, but it occurs in a variety of animals and in humans, and appears to be more common in snow leopards than in other species. The cubs have otherwise developed well, playing, eating, running and jumping normally - see the video of them playing with their mom after the jump.

Photo Credit: Philadelphia Zoo

More photos, videos and conservation information after the jump.

Meet "Muppet", Taronga Zoo's Andean Condor Chick

Taronga Zoo’s bird Keepers are celebrating the hatching of a very precious Andean Condor chick. The parents, Connie and Bruce, are the only breeding pair in Australasia and their Keepers were hopeful that this breeding season the pair would produce two offspring.

To help the parents achieve this, the Bird Team incubated the first egg they laid. On the November 23, after two months of very careful monitoring and special conditions (including regular candling to check that the egg was healthy and had good vein development), a very strong chick pushed her way out of the egg, much to the delight of all!

This chick became even more of a triumph for the Zoo as the second egg, which the parents subsequently laid and incubated themselves, didn’t make it.

Taronga’s Keepers are currently hand raising the youngster who is thriving. The very curious female, who is yet being called "Muppet" in lieu of any here-to-fore official name, will eventually be a star in the QBE Free Flight Bird Show, swooping her massive wing span across the audience as she flies on to stage and educates people about her wild cousins which are threatened in the wild. 

Photo Credit: Taronga Zoo

 

Twin Cheetah Cubs Await Names

The Wilds in Ohio just finished their naming contest for their twin cheetah cubs, one male and one female, born on Octotber 31 to mom Tabu. We hear they are down to 4-6 sets of names but thought you'd like to see these babies as they decide. This is the second litter for Tabu but the first she is raising on her own. She's doing a great job, and has been very protective of her two little cubs.

Female cheetahs typically bear three to five cubs in a litter and the cubs stay with their mothers until they are 12 to 20 months old. A full-grown adult cheetah weighs between 86 and 143 pounds. Cheetahs live and hunt in open grasslands and bushy areas in parts of Africa and the Middle East. They are the fastest land mammals, reaching speeds of 60 to 70 miles an hour over short distances. 

Cheetahs are included on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list of vulnerable species (African subspecies threatened, Asiatic subspecies in critical situation) as well as on the US Endangered Species Act: threatened species. Today there are just 12,400 cheetahs remaining in the wild, and the biggest population is currently located in Namibia with about 2,500 individuals. Asiatic subspecies is critically endangered counting only fifty to sixty individuals that still have their habitats in Iran.

Photo Credit: The Wilds

 

Tapir Trio Takes Twenty-Twelve By Storm!

Three baby Tapirs are taking 2012 by storm! First it was the U.K.'s Chester Zoo, whose female Tapir, Jennifer, gave birth to a little girl (pictured above) on December 27. The calf, named Talia, is doing really well and has already been seen out and about, foraging for food. Then on New Year's Eve a male South American Tapir (2nd and 3rd pictures) was born at the Netherlands' Artis Zoo. Last but not least, Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo welcomed a female Tapir calf (last 2 pictures) on New Years Day. There are four species of tapir native to Southeast Asia and in Central and South America, all of which are classified as endangered due to ongoing decline.

His Name is Tambo! Baby Black Crested Macaque at Drusillas Park

A critically endangered monkey has been born at the UK's Drusillas Park, as part of the European breeding program. The Sulawesi Black Crested macaque was delivered on October 25 and staff are delighted. Parents Kendari and Moteck were introduced at Drusillas in 2010, after being re-homed respectively from Chester Zoo and Monkey Park in Israel. The new arrival is the couple’s first baby together and hopefully will be one of many more to come.

These large impressive monkeys have just one baby at a time, born with a pink face which darkens with age. So far the baby boy, just named Tambo after the Zoo's naming contest, is thriving alongside Mom and Dad. He will remain very dependent for the next four to five months, clinging to his mother who will nurse him for at least a year. 

Zoo Manager, Sue Woodgate commented: “It is wonderful to see the new addition to our macaque family. He is showing a lot of interest in his surroundings and being doted on by his cousin Kamala who was born at Drusillas in 2010. We are expecting a lot of monkeying around from these two over the coming months.”

Black crested macaques are native to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi where they are now regarded as critically endangered by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). In the last 40 years it is estimated that the population has been reduced by more than 80% due to habitat loss and hunting pressure and they now face the very real threat of extinction in the wild.

Photo Credits: Drusillas Park Zoo

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