Roger Williams Park Zoo

Elation As Baby Sloth Joins The Zoo Family

The team at Roger Williams Park Zoo is elated to announce the birth of a baby sloth! The adorable newborn is born to mom Fiona and dad Westley and is currently resting comfortably while staying close to mom. The incredible staff of zookeepers and veterinarians are maintaining a watchful eye over the mother and baby, ensuring their well-being as they bond behind the scenes. With the assistance of the mother's affection, daily monitoring, and supplemental feeding from the keepers, the little one is steadily growing and gaining strength.

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Roger Williams Park Zoo Welcomes A New Golden Lion Tamarin Baby

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND (Aug 17, 2022) The Roger Williams Park Zoo's latest endangered golden lion tamarin was born Thursday, August 11 to father Kyle and mother Raff (pronounced Rafe). The new baby will also share mom and dad with siblings Angus and Boudica.

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Tamarins are squirrel-size monkeys with a golden ruff resembling a lion's mane. At birth, the golden lion tamarin is fully furred with eyes open. It clings to its mother for the first few weeks and nurses for 90 days. At about five weeks, it begins to experience things independently. Zoo staff have not determined the baby’s sex yet. Zoo visitors can spot mom and baby in the Faces of the Rain Forest exhibit.

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Sweetest Moments of 2021 at Roger Williams Park Zoo

Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island is the third oldest zoo in the US. It's celebrating its 150th birthday this year!

The Zoo is thankful for all the memories from 2021 and released this compilation of sweetest moments as they look forward to making more memories in their sesquicentennial year!

We thought you'd get a kick out of the clips too, so we just had to share!


This is kind of a BIG DILLO…

Providence, Rhode Island’s Roger Williams Park Zoo is thrilled to announce the birth of four nine-banded armadillos on April 23rd! Meet Sophia, Rose, Dorothy and Blanche. Mom Patsy and her pups are doing well and bonding off-exhibit. Animal and vet care staff will continue to monitor them.

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Nine-banded armadillos have four identical pups of the same gender in every litter.

Baby armadillos are often called pups and when born, their shell is soft and a light gray/pink.

After a few days their shell will begin to harden until they reach maturity.


HELLO LITTLE FLOOF!

 

Roger Williams Park Zoo is happy to share that a Chilean flamingo chick has hatched. This now eight-day old chick is a historical birth for The Zoo; the first flamingo born at RWPZoo in 22 years. Mom is doing a great job tending to her little one. RWP Zoo keepers and vet care team will continue to monitor mom and baby. Flamingo young are born white, with soft, downy feathers and a straight bill. As they mature the bill will gradually curve downwards. Both parents take care of the newborn flamingo, feeding it “crop milk”, a fluid produced in their digestive systems. . . . #babyanimals #rwpzoo #zooborns #flamingo #chileanflamingo #cuteanimals


It’s a baby… SLOTH!!

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Roger Williams Park Zoo & Carousel Village's Sloth Mom Fiona and Dad Welsey welcomed their little one into the world on Wednesday, May 13, 2020.
Fiona and her baby had a hard delivery and needed emergency care and a lot of extra help.
 
Veterinarians and animal care staff manually assisted with the birth when it was clear that Fiona was not able to make additional progress. At first the baby was not moving, but after being warmed finally responded.
 
Fiona’s pregnancy journey began in mid-autumn of 2019 and to now see this healthy little sloth is truly heartwarming for the entire Zoo family. Today mom and baby are doing well but will require lots of continual love and care.

Roger Williams Park Zoo Welcomes Endangered Tree Kangaroo

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Roger Williams Park Zoo in Rhode Island has just announced the birth of a Matschie’s Tree Kangaroo, born in October last year. The female joey, named Holly, is the first tree kangaroo birth at the zoo in over 20 years, and one of only one of three born in captivity in the U.S. last year.

Tree Kangaroos are an Endangered species, and are part of a Species Survival Program – a cooperative breeding program through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) that aims to rehabilitate endangered and threatened species populations.

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3 kangarooPhoto credit: Roger Williams Park Zoo

See video of mother and baby:

Zoo keepers discovered that the female tree kangaroo was pregnant after the announcement of the zoo’s plans to build a new tree kangaroo exhibit in the Australasia building by spring 2014.

“The first six months after birth is a critical time for both mother and baby. For this reason, we have put construction of the new exhibit on hold until late June 2014,” said Zoo Executive Director Dr. Jeremy Goodman, DVM. The exhibit will feature indoor and outdoor viewing areas with easy access for the animals between both spaces, giving guests a much improved view of the animals. Opening of the new exhibit is planned for early fall.

See and read more after the fold!

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Corndog Delivers!

Baby Anteater Roger Williams Park Zoo 1

Keepers at Roger Williams Park Zoo were overjoyed April 5 when they checked in on their resident female Giant Anteater, Corndog, and discovered she had given birth to a healthy baby. Veterinary staff had been tracking the baby's development with weekly ultrasound exams and this delivery was right on schedule with their predictions. 

The first six months of life can be very challenging for baby Anteaters, so animal care staff are watching the pup's progress closely. However, so far all is well with the long-nosed youngster, who weighed 2.75 lbs five days after birth. In these photos, Zoo staff provided the baby with a stuffed animal to cling to for comfort during a medical exam.

Starting next week, Corndog will be allowed to venture outside with her baby for fresh air whenever she likes. Visitors will likely be able to see the baby clinging to the fur on mom's back, where the pup will remain for most of its first year of life.

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Baby Anteater at Roger Williams Park Zoo 2Photo credits: Roger Williams Park Zoo

Corndog was born in January 2006 at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo in California, and came to Roger Williams Park Zoo last year from the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, Indiana. The father, Johei, was born in 2006 at the San Diego Zoo and was the first resident in the Zoo’s Giant Anteater exhibit which was completed in 2007.

Corndog was selected to come to Roger Williams Park Zoo to be bred with Johei based on recommendations made by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Giant Anteaters, native to grassland and lowland tropical forests in Central and South America, are listed as “vulnerable” by the IUCN due to loss of habitat and hunting. It is estimated that only 5,000 animals remain in the wild. Giant Anteaters have a sense of smell that is 40 times as powerful as a human’s to help them locate ant colonies.  They use their 4 inch long claws to rip open termite mounds and their 2 foot long tongues move up to 150 times per minute as they each consume up to 35,000 termites and ants per day.