ZooBorns

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

Funky Bottle-Feeding Spider Monkey

This is Marvin, the new baby Red-faced Spider Monkey at the UK's Twycross Zoo. Born May 2, the tiny monkey is being hand-reared by the keepers. According to photographer Sypix, he seemed to be very attached to his pink blanket. Red-faced Spider Monkeys live up to thirty years in the wild and even longer in captivity. They are protected by the Amazon Animal Protection Act of 1973, although they are still listed as vulnerable to extinction.

Prairie Dog Days of Summer

Life can be hectic for us creatures. After this Twycross Zoo Prairie pup's full day of wrestling with Mom...

keeping a lookout for mounds of dirt...

and munching on seeds...

...a little downtime is critical...

Photo Credits: Clare H.

Four-day-old Quail Chick at Twycross Zoo

This tiny chick photographed moments ago at Twycross Zoo represents a recent clutch of quail chicks being raised with the aid of a heat lamp. The Zoo's quail hen has mysteriously ignored her first clutch of eggs, leaving the bird keeper no choice but to incubate it artificially. When they are a month old the chicks will be put in an apex in the aviary. The tiny chicks will be  monitored until they are big enough to look after themselves.

Baby Gibbon Clings to Stuffed Ape

A hand-reared baby White-handed Gibbon at the UK's Twycross Zoo, snuggles up to a stuffed animal before bed. In the wild, these endangered gibbons suffer from widespread deforestation as well as poaching and capture for the pet trade.  

A First for Twycross Zoo

Twycross Zoo is the only collection in the UK to exhibit and now breed the rare Tufted deer.  The small male fawn was born on 16th June 09 and weighed 1.5 kg at birth which is smaller than a bag of sugar.  Mother “Michelle” and father “Mitch” have been exceptional at rearing their first offspring.

    Looking vulnerable...

Zoo keepers have named the baby Ying Xiong (pronounced Ying Yong) which means hero in Chinese as this species originates from China.  The fawn is suckling from Michelle on demand and butts the teat in the same way a lamb does to stimulate the milk flow.