First hops! A baby wallaroo emerged from its mother’s pouch recently. Photo by Oakland Zoo.
A baby wallaroo took its first hops at Oakland Zoo recently. Keepers estimate the joey was born in October-November (although it’s impossible to determine its exact birth date). The joey now comes out to graze and explore its surrounding, but hops back into its mother’s pouch for safety.
The joey feels safe and cozy back in the pouch. Photo by Oakland Zoo.
Zippety-do-dah! This bouncing baby zebra skips around her enclosure at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo. Photo by Taronga Western Plains Zoo.
Taronga Western Plains Zoo, outside Sydney, Australia, welcomed a female baby plains zebra to their herd at the end of July. The energetic little foal is named Zina, which is Swahili for “free spirit”.
“Both mother and foal are doing really well which is to be expected from an experienced mother like Kijani,” said keeper Carolene Magner. “Zina is staying close by her mother’s side at present but does enjoy a gallop around the paddock in the morning.”
Photo by Taronga Western Plains Zoo.
Photo by Taronga Western Plains Zoo.
In the wild, plains zebras (or common zebras) inhabit the grasslands of eastern and southern Africa.
To learn more about Zina, see the Taronga Western Plains Zoo website. To learn more about zebras, see our article, Plains Zebra.
Adia and her new foal, born June 18. Photo by Lincoln Park Zoo.
The Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago celebrated Father’s Day weekend with the arrival of a female Grevy’s zebra foal. It was the first zebra birth at the zoo since 2012! The baby zebra is the third foal for mother Adia and the first for father Webster.
In the wild, Grevy’s zebras are considered endangered due to hunting and habitat loss. They are native to eastern Africa, ranging from Ethiopia to Kenya.
Lincoln Park Zoo participates in the Grevy’s Zebra Species Survival Plan, a shared conservation effort by zoos throughout the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
“Research tells us that fostering an emotional connection between humans and animals is key to creating a real commitment to wildlife conservation,” said Lincoln Park Zoo Vice President of Education and Community Engagement Dana Murphy. “Species like zebras, with which we are relatively familiar—and become so at an early age—help us forge that connection and inspire our guests to care about their future.”
For more about Lincoln Park’s baby zebra, visit their website.
Photo by Lincoln Park Zoo.
Photo by Lincoln Park Zoo.
Oakland Zoo staff perform regular checkups on the newest members of the river otter family. Photo by Oakland Zoo.
On Mother’s Day, two North American river otters at the Oakland Zoo had lots to celebrate. The two new moms have had their paws full with three pups each for the past few months.
Rose, the younger of the two moms, gave birth to a litter of two males and one female on January 25. A few weeks later, on February 20, Ginger gave birth to a litter of two females and one male.
Zoo staff has been monitoring the pups and administering regular checkups to ensure they are in good health. The pups have remained off exhibit while they nurse, grow, and learn to swim. (Swimming is not instinctual for otter pups.)
Photo by Oakland Zoo.
Photo by Oakland Zoo.
Photo by Oakland Zoo.
Photo by Oakland Zoo.
To learn more, visit the Oakland Zoo website.
Meet the newest baby sloths at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay: Daisy’s baby (left) and Grizzly’s baby (right). Photo by Busch Gardens.
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay recently welcomed two baby sloths!
A Hoffman’s two-toed sloth was born on March 24 to mother Grizzly and father Teddy. The little one only weighed 186 grams (6.6 ounces) at birth and wasn’t nursing regularly. So the animal care team at Busch Gardens decided to hand-nurse the baby via syringe every two hours. Currently, the baby is healthy and under 24-hour watch.
The animal care team feeds Grizzly’s baby by syringe. Photo by Busch Gardens.
A Linne’s two-toed sloth was born on April 2 to mother Daisy and father Mario. Weighing 550 grams (19.4 ounces) at birth, the baby is currently healthy and being cared for by its mother. The animal care team is monitoring closely.
The animal care team checks Daisy’s baby, who is still under her daily care.
Watch a video below of the two baby sloths:
One interesting fact about two-toed sloths is that they actually have three toes. (All sloths have three toes per foot.) But two-toed sloths have only two claws per foot. For more interesting sloth facts, see our article about the brown-throated three-toed sloth.
Inky the octopus at National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier. Photo by National Aquarium of New Zealand.
Inky, an octopus at the National Aquarium of New Zealand, made a spectacular nighttime escape. The contortionist octopus squeezed through a tiny gap at the top of his enclosure, then scuttled 8 feet across the floor to a drain pipe. After sliding 164 feet down the pipe, he dropped down to freedom (or specifically, Hawke’s Bay which opens out into the Pacific Ocean).
According to the aquarium’s manager, Rob Yarrall, “He managed to make his way to one of the drain holes that go back to the ocean, and off he went. Didn’t even leave us a message.”
Blotchy the octopus (Inky’s aquarium mate) decided against adventure and remained at the aquarium.
For more about Inky, see the New York Times.
For more great escapes, see our archive of animal escapes.
Learn more amazing facts about octopuses at our Common Octopus article.
The animal care staff at Lincoln Park Zoo successfully hand-reared 5 Chilean flamingo chicks that had hatched between September 11-28, 2015.
Now on view at the zoo’s Waterfowl Lagoon, the grey and fuzzy chicks weigh around 2-3 kg, roughly 30 times their weight since hatch.
“These chicks are a true testament to the dedicated animal care staff here at Lincoln Park Zoo,” said Hope B. McCormick Curator of Birds. “We’re excited to share the chicks with our visitors and to learn from these chicks to further our knowledge of the species.”
When the flamingos hatched, animal care staff collected shell fragments for DNA testing. This is a non-invasive way to determine the sex of the birds. The tests revealed that two of the chicks are male and three are female.
In the wild, Chilean flamingos live in large flocks in Peru, Brazil and Argentina. Like all flamingos, the Chilean species has pink plumage – or feathers – but are born with white-grey plumage and show the full iconic coloration at around 2-years-old. Chilean flamingos have the ability to tolerate extreme conditions, which makes them well suited for Chicago’s harsh winters.
Learn more at the Lincoln Park Zoo website.
Baby Akila, a Hamadryas baboon, was born on November 15 to parents Martijn and Maya at Oakland Zoo. “Akila” is a Swahili word meaning “intelligent.” Little Akila spends most of her time nursing and clinging to her mother’s back. She has four rambunctious older siblings.
Baby Akila, a Hamadryas baboon, was born on November 15 to parents Martijn and Maya.
The zoo also acquired two new male baboons from Prospect Park Zoo. The two 2-year-old newcomers, Milo and Kusa, are fitting in well with the troop at Oakland Zoo.
“The introductions are going wonderfully,” said Margaret Rousser, Zoological Manager at Oakland Zoo. “We didn’t expect it to go so quickly or smoothly, but we were pleasantly surprised. The great thing about baboons is that they are very family oriented and since the new boys are not sexually mature yet, Martijn has accepted them pretty easily.”
Learn more at the Oakland Zoo website.
Giant panda cub Bei Bei made his media debut at @NationalZoo this morning.https://t.co/cQioTqTCCj pic.twitter.com/9LDtMk4OwD
— Washingtonian (@washingtonian) December 16, 2015
Meet Bei Bei, the newest fuzzy face at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Bei Bei (“bay-bay”), a giant panda cub, was born in August to mother Mei Xiang. His name means “precious treasure.” Currently at four months, he weighs 17.5 pounds.
Bei Bei will be on public display, along with his mother and big sister Bao Bao, on January 16.
To learn more about Bei Bei, see the National Zoo website. You can also watch him on their live streaming panda cam.
Learn more about pandas at our giant panda facts article.
Busch Gardens Tampa welcomed a female southern white rhinoceros calf on October 16. The calf is healthy and is currently being cared for by experienced mother Kisiri with the Busch Gardens animal care team watching closely.
Photo by Busch Gardens.
Newborn white rhinoceroses usually weigh about 150 pounds and can gain four pounds every day for the first year. White rhinos are the second largest land mammal after the elephant and can weigh as much as 5,000 pounds when fully grown.
The southern white rhinoceros is classified as a near-threatened species with just over 20,000 left in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
Learn more about the baby southern white rhino at the Busch Gardens Tampa blog.