Al Ain Wildlife Park & Resort

Al Ain Zoo Welcomes a Baby Chital Deer

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The UAE's Al Ain Zoo is celebrating the birth of a newborn Chital Axis Deer. Born the week of March 19, the Chital calf is now on exhibit. These deer are renowned for their beautiful reddish-brown coats with white spots and their large, three-pronged antlers.

While native to the dense semi-evergreen forests and open grasslands of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and India, Chital deer have also been successfully introduced to Texas, Hawaii and Queensland Australia. They are primarily grazers, feeding on short, sprouting grasses.

In the early 20th century there were substantial declines and local extinctions, driven by hunting for meat, extermination as an agricultural pest, and habitat conversion. Thanks to protected areas and their tendency to be prolific breeders, the Chital is currently listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

Kiss

Chital
Photo Credit: Al Ain Zoo


Orphaned Baby Mhorr Gazelle Thriving at Al Ain Zoo

Mhorr

Al Ain Zoo in the UAE has just closed a naming competition for their newest member... an endangered baby Mohrr gazelle. Keep an ear out for the winning name in the near future.

Born in late October, 2011, the baby was orphaned after it's mother passed away just hours after giving birth. A team of vets and zookeepers have been hand raising the little male, and he has been thriving.  They are taking the steps necessary to ensure the gazelle can be easily re-integrated into the herd one he's weaned and can feed himself. 

The baby is bottle-fed 5 times per day. Though he's kept in a separate area for now so he can be closely monitored as he grows, the enclosure is in close proximity to his herd, allowing connection and contact with them.

Dr Arshad Toosy, Manager of Venerinary Operations at Al Ain Zoo said, “We are delighted to welcome the new baby Mhorr gazelle to our western sub-species of the Dama gazelle, once lived in the Sahara desert areas in Morocco. Their numbers have rapidly declined due to hunting, over grazing by domestic livestock and civil unrest, and today the Mhorr gazelle exists only in captivity, where breeding and re-introduction programs are its only hope for survival.”

  Feeding

Photo Credit: Al Ain Zoo

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Motherly Monkey Love at Zoological Center Tel Aviv

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After nine years with no babies in the Weeper Capuchin enclosure at Israel's Zoological Center Tel Aviv, Kopatch, a 15 year old female gave birth to a tiny baby. Kopatch's rank in the group is usually very low, but since she gave birth it seems to have risen. The capuchin group arrived at the Safari on May 25th 1987, after being smuggled into Germany and confiscated by the government there. They were kept in the Hannover Zoo until they could find a new home.

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Photo credits: Tibor Jager

 

Capuchins are the smartest monkeys among the "New World monkeys". They are famous for their tool use and nut cracking ability, using two stones- one as an anvil and the other to crack the nut with.

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Feisty Puppies Emerge to Frolic

African Wild Dog ready to play at Ail Ain

After three long but cozy months in the den, Al Ain Wildlife Park's African Wild Dog pups are now ready to frolic in the sun. All six pups have emerged happy and healthy and are learning how to hunt from their parents and other pack members. With their numbers dramatically reduced in the wild due to human persecution, habitat loss, decline in prey and disease spread by domestic dogs, these births mark a great success for Al Ain's Desert Carnivore Conservation & Breeding Programme

African Wild Dogs looking for trouble at Ail Ain Wildlife Park

African Wild Dogs get ready to rock at Ail Ain Wildlife Park

African Wild Dogs on the hunt with mom

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Antlered Beasts in Record Numbers!

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Desert Antelopes, a highly threatened and beautiful group of animals, are a key part of Al Ain Wildlife Park & Resort’s (AWPR) conservation work. The year 2010 has seen a bumper harvest of young animals born in the zoo and a number of conservation research initiatives are moving ahead. 2010 marked one of AWPR’s best recorded year for Antelope births, with a record number of young Antelope raised, including 16 Scimitar-horned Oryx, 27 Arabian Oryx, ten Beisa Oryx, four Addax, three Chad Dama Gazelles, six Mhorr Dama Gazelles and six Speke’s Gazelles.

Addax-003 Addax babies huddle up behind Mom (above).

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Mhorr-gazelle-003cropA baby Mhorr Gazelle pauses during a drink.

More [PHOTOS] below the fold...

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Precious Sand Kittens at Al Ain Wildlife Park

Two sand cat kittens were born at the Al Ain Wildlife Park & Resort in the United Arab Emirates. The kittens’ birth was a result of an assistive reproductive technique called in-vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. This marks the first time the procedure was successful in Sand cats. The research project is on-going and includes captive sand cat populations in the United States and Europe and is conducted in collaboration with the University of Illinois and the Cincinnati Zoo.

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Seeing-double

Scaredy-cat

Surprise

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