At two-and-a-half months old, the cubs are growing fast and
becoming more adventurous. Recently, as
a zoo keeper cleaned their enclosure, the cubs decided to play in the water spraying
from the hose. This was the first time
the cubs experienced getting wet – but as you can see from the photos, they
didn’t seem to mind at all.
Photo Credits: Janice Sveda, Smithsonian's National Zoo
The cubs, a male and a female, recently had a routine
veterinary check-up and were proclaimed healthy and strong. You can see their baby photos here,
here,
and here.
These two cubs are genetically valuable to the zoo
population of Clouded Leopards. The cubs’
parents, Jao Chu and Hannibal, were born in Thailand and came to the
Smithsonian as part of a collaborative research program.
See more playful photos and read more below the fold.
The Saint Louis
Zoo's baby Asian Elephant, born on April 26, is experiencing new adventures every day as she explores the world under the watchful eye of her mother, Ellie. You saw the not-so-little calf's first baby pictures here on ZooBorns (she weighed 251 pounds at birth!).
In the video below, you'll see the female calf enjoying her first bath, courtesy of a zoo keeper with a hose! You can help
name the baby on
the zoo’s website through Sunday.
Photo Credits: Liz Martin (1), Saint Louis Zoo (2), Stephanie Richmond (3,5), Sarah Riffle (4)
Mother and baby
are not yet on public display, and a debut date has not been set. This is
Ellie’s third baby and the fourth for the baby’s 20-year-old father, Raja.
“An experienced
mother and grandmother, Ellie was, of course, very nurturing, caring for her
newborn baby from the very beginning,” said Curator of mammals Martha Fischer. “She did a great job of
carrying and giving birth to a beautiful baby girl.”
“Elephants form deep family bonds and live in
tight matriarchal family groups of related females so the addition of a fourth
female youngster further cements these strong ties and mirrors the natural
family structure for Asian Elephants found in the wild,” Fischer said.
The Saint Louis
Zoo has been actively involved with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)
Species Survival Plan for Asian Elephants. “Because Asian Elephants are so
endangered in the wild, the birth of this Elephant is important to the
conservation work we do with other North American zoos,” says Dr. Jeffrey P.
Bonner, Dana Brown President & CEO of the Saint Louis Zoo. “Together
AZA-accredited zoos cooperatively manage the breeding of Asian Elephants to
maintain healthy populations that are as genetically diverse and as
demographically stable as possible.
“There are only
between 35,000 and 50,000 Asian Elephants left in the wild, and they are facing
extinction. Given the shrinking population of Asian Elephants, the Saint Louis
Zoo shares a common vision with other professional Elephant conservation
organizations and with our Elephant care colleagues—a vision that includes Elephants
in the world’s future forever, both in zoos and in the wild.”
In addition to
participating in the AZA Species Survival Plan, the Zoo supports the welfare
and conservation of Asian Elephants in Sumatra and other countries in Asia
through the International Elephant Foundation, as well as the conservation of
African Elephants in Kenya.
Also, with Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus
(EEHV) a common health issue for Elephants both in the care of zoos and in the
wild, the Saint Louis Zoo has been instrumental in pursuing the latest EEHV
detection and testing protocols. For several years, the Zoo has joined other
North American Elephant care facilities in actively supporting an EEHV research
effort. The International Elephant Foundation is facilitating this study
to find a cure.
Named for the word “snow” in Finnish, Lumi the female Reindeer
calf was born on April 25 at Austria’s Vienna Zoo. Only minutes after the 11-pound
(5 kg) calf was delivered by female Reindeer Helmi, Lumi stood up on her thin and wobbly
legs.
Photo Credits: Norbert Potensky
According to Zoo Director Dagmar Schratter, “Reindeer live in the barren expanses of
the Arctic tundra and taiga. Females and young animals have to move on a few days
after birth to seek new pastures with the herd.”
Vienna Zoo’s Reindeer
herd includes five adult females and one male named Hank. With Lumi’s birth, Hank has become a father
for the fifth time. Lumi is the second
calf born to Helmi.
Unlike other
members of the deer family, where only the males have antlers, both male and
female Reindeer have antlers. Little
Lumi will begin to grow her antlers when she is about seven months old.
Reindeer are
widespread across extreme northern North America and Eurasia, but many herds
are shrinking in numbers, possibly due to climate change and habitat
disturbance.
Namoja, Munster Zoo's female Cheetah, has her paws full with five cubs. Now nearly two months old, Namoja's quintet has been exploring Munster's outdoor exhibit since day nine. Father Jabari met Namoja in early January and the five cubs arrived just 92 days later! While First-time mom Namoja has shown excellent cub-rearing skills and a steady paw, she'll have to remain vigilant. The cubs are already adept crawlers and it won't be long before they're scampering around the entire 7,500 sq. ft. exhibit!
A successful artificial insemination of an Asian Golden Cat was performed at Allwetter Zoo, which the zoo is calling the world's first for this species. On April 7, after a gestation period of approximately 75-80 days, twin cubs were born. One is being nursed by the mother, and the other is being cared for by keepers to ensure both of these rare and important babies will grow strong and develop well.
The cubs are nursing well and putting on weight. They will not be interested in meat until at least a month old. You can watch a video HERE. The narration is in German but you can hear the cub roar in the first few seconds and see it nursing and getting scritches.
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 is fraught with difficulties, since not every pairing of males and females works well. And since few zoos keep Asian Cats, changing the pairings can be quite a challenge. These beautiful and rare cats only live in three zoos in Germany (Heidelberg, Münster, Wuppertal, Germany), and in four other zoos in Europe. So while there has been little success with artificial insemination of wild cats worldwide, the zoo still chose this approach.
The Perth Zoo in Australia had another successful season in their efforts to conserve Western Swamp Tortoises with 33 successful hatches. The zoo has been working hard since 1989 to help conserve this critically endangered species by rebuilding their wild population through a captive breeding and reintroduction program. Since the program's initiation, the zoo has hatched more than 800 tortoises, 600 of which have been successfully reintroduced to the wild.
In order to help increase the hatching success, after tortoises lay their eggs, keepers dig them up and place them in incubators. They remain here for four to six months until the hatchlings emerge. This year, the zoo was able to capture rare footage of two tortoises emerging from their shells, which can be found below. After they are born, the hatchlings are weighed and marked with nail polish on their shells so that they can be individually identified.
Photo credits: Daniel Scarparolo / Perth Zoo
Hatchlings are raised at the zoo for about three years until they reach 100 grams in weight. At this point they are released into one of four sites that are managed by the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation to help boost the wild population. In addition, the zoo maintains an "insurance population" of 150-200 Western Swamp Tortoises in case of an unforseen drastic decline in wild number.
The Cincinnati Zoo's 3-month-old Western Lowland Gorilla named Gladys made her public debut in the outdoor yard on April 30. Over the next month, Gladys will be doing this with her human surrogates as part of Phase III of her “gorillification.” The surrogates will allow her to explore all areas of the outdoor yard, climb trees and duck into caves. Besides being enriching, this process will ensure Gladys is familiar with the yard and comfortable when she goes out again with her gorilla surrogate in the future.
Gladys was born at the Gladys Porter Zoo on
January 29. The mother, 14 -year-old Kiazi, didn't respond well to
the infant and ultimately rejected her. This behavior, which occasionally
happens in first-time mothers, resulted in keepers from the Gladys Porter Zoo
stepping in to hand-rear the infant until they had a plan in place.
Unfortunately, all of the viable surrogates there already had young gorillas,
so they began to look elsewhere. After countless phone calls with the
Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) Ape Taxon Advisory Group (TAG)
Maternal Management Committee and the Western Lowland Gorilla Species
Survival Plan (SSP) Committee, the Cincinnati Zoo was determined to be the best
home for the baby. Gladys is currently being hand raised by a group of
approximately 10 human surrogates, until she can transition to
a gorilla surrogate in the coming months.
Western Lowland Gorillas are Critically
Endangered, with less than 175,000 individuals in the wild. Due primarily to
habitat destruction caused by logging, mineral mining and agricultural
expansion, wild gorilla numbers continue to shrink. The
bushmeat trade – the killing of wild animals to be used as human food
– is also a major threat to the Western Lowland Gorilla population
throughout the Central African rainforests. Over 1,000 gorillas are
illegally poached for the bushmeat trade each year.
See more picturess of Gladys and her surrogates on their first outing below the fold:
An orphaned Common Squirrel Monkey is in very good hands at Warsaw Zoo. The infant was born at the zoo on March 28th and is now being bottle fed and raised by dedicated caretakers. The tiny monkey is male who weighed just 167 grams at birth. He is healthy and doing well.
Photo credits: Warsaw Zoo
Common Squirrel Monkeys are found abundantly throughout the rain-forests of South America. Very agile and playful, they are highly social animals that live in hierarchical groups. Males and females live in separate social groups. The females tend stay based around certain feeding and resting sites, while males travel more widely. During the mating season, the dominant male will mate with many or all the mature females that his group encounters.
The little male Sumatran Tiger cub, born on March 3rd to mother Bahagia at the Sacramento Zoo, is now eight weeks old. ZooBorns has been reporting on the baby's birth and growth, which you can find HERE and HERE. Named CJ, the cub is now a hefty 16 pounds, has almost all of his teeth in and is very playful with mom. He is not eating solid food yet, but has shown interest by investigating Mom's meals.
The latest development is that CJ is walking! He spends a lot of time following Mom around, exploring the den, and expanding on his his new abilities with little bouts of jumping.
Photo Credit Erik Bowker
You can see how playful CJ is with Mom in the video below. Listen to him practice his baby roar near the beginning!
Bird keepers at the Houston Zoo have been busy lately as they have been providing care for their newest resident, a Plush-Crested Jay chick. The chick, who was the lone hatchling from its clutch, is being closely monitored by keepers. Caretakers in the zoo's bird department have been feeding the chick daily and closely monitoring its weight to make sure that it's growing at an acceptable rate.
Photo credits: Houston Zoo
Plush-Crested Jays are a type of Corvid native to the central regions of southern South America in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. These medium sized birds have dark coloration with a whitish cream colored chest. Plush-Crested Jay chicks, like most birds, are very dependent on their parents after hatching, and don't even open their eyes until they are a week old.
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