More Red River Hoglets for Calgary
April 16, 2010
In the early morning hours of April 1, Red River hog mom Mvula gave birth to her second litter of adorable little Red River hoglets at the Calgary Zoo! The three babies and mom are now ready to come out to play after spending time bonding in their off display nursery over the past two weeks. ZooBorns covered Mvula's first batch of little piglets in April of last year.
Photo and video credits: Calgary Zoo
Adult Red River hogs get their name from their red coat and because their natural habitat is in the wetland areas of Central and Eastern Africa. The hoglets' camouflage coats make them look kind of like little orange watermelons!
Mvula is an excellent and experienced mother and the Savannah keeper team are pleased with the way that she is again taking care of her three babies. Five hoglets were born in the litter, but sadly as sometimes happens in nature, two of the babies had health issues and died soon after birth. “We will continue to observe Mvula and her babies and monitor their progress, but whenever possible we want to allow the mother to raise her babies without intervention.
The hoglets will be thoroughly examined when they require their vaccinations in 10 to 12 weeks although we have been able to tell that all three are little boys,” said Bill Blayney, zookeeper.
“The older siblings, now a year old, and dad Ekundu are getting to know the new babies slowly, but soon they will all be together and it will be a great learning experience for this expanded family unit,” Blayney continued. “We keep them apart for the first week or so to reduce the stress on the mother in caring for her new babies, but Mvula let us know that she is now ready to come out into the public areas.”