Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images
Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images
Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images
Attila Kovacs/AP Photo/MTI
This baby's mother, the Oregon Zoo's adult Colobus, Molly, was chosen as the 2008 mother of the year!
Watch the video
10 potentially viable eggs have been laid by Lincoln Park Zoo's Chilean flamingos, with zoo experts expecting offspring to begin hatching in about two weeks.
Available records indicate that the zoo has been egg-less since at least the late 1950s. In 2003, the zoo swapped breeds, changing from the American species to the hardier Chilean type. Adding the vegetation helped make the population -- there are currently 48 of the birds -- seem denser, which flamingos prefer.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
FLAMINGO FACTS
Why are flamingos pink?
The color reflects the beta carotene in their diet of shrimp and shellfish.
Why do they stand on one foot?
Raising one foot helps them shift their weight to make themselves more comfortable. Folding one leg also can keep them warm by reducing the blood supply to the folded limb.
Do flamingos fly?
Yes, but they need a few paces to take off. Zoo flamingos either have their wings regularly clipped or are pinioned, having parts of their wings removed when they are young.
Source: Lincoln Park Zoo; Sea World
2nd photo: (via Mutts) Hanover Zoo's newest addition, who increases their flamingo family to an even 100 birds,
Since prehistoric times, insects have played invaluable roles: pollinating crops, decomposing waste and adding intrigue, color, texture and majesty to our world.
Located in the historic U.S. Custom House on Canal Street in downtown New Orleans, Audubon Insectarium will delight you with ‘up close and personal’ live insect encounters, the indelible story of the Crescent City and insects, and “Life Underground,” where you’ll be shrunk to insect size.
(via Intelligent Travel)
Two male peninsular pronghorns were born at the L.A. Zoo on March 25, 2008. These fawns are the first of their kind ever born at a Zoo. According to Senior Animal Keeper Kelley Greene, “the brothers have been pulled for hand rearing to ensure that they are given every opportunity to thrive.” When the pair is old enough, they will be sent to the Living Desert in Coachella Valley, Calif.
The parents of these two healthy boys were just fawns themselves when they arrived at the L.A. Zoo in July of 2006. These pronghorns originally came here from a breeding center in Mexico and are the first of their species to be on exhibit outside of their home country. The older pronghorns are located in the North American section of the Zoo.
Typically, a pronghorn mother will have one or two fawns weighing in at around seven or eight pounds. When they reach adulthood, pronghorns weigh up to 125 pounds and reach a height of 35 inches. The females are usually 10 to 25 percent smaller then males.
Newborns take their first steps within 30 minutes of birth. By the time they are four days old, they can outrun humans. After just a week, fawns can run faster than dogs and horseback riders over short distances. They are the second fastest land mammal and the fastest ungulate (hoofed mammal), clocking in at anywhere from 40 to 60 miles per hour. They can maintain this speed, without showing any sign of distress, for an hour or longer.
In the wild the fawns will hide for the first three or four weeks of their lives. During these weeks, they come out only to nurse. The fawns will continue to conceal themselves until they are able to move with the rest of the heard.
These graceful animals are mostly active at dawn and dusk, which is when they graze on various plants including, shrubs, weeds, cacti, sagebrush and grasses. Although they will drink when water is available, they can go for weeks without water since they obtain moisture from their food.
The birth of these two pronghorns is a great leap for the conservation efforts of this critically endangered species. Native to Baja California Sur, Mexico, only about 200 of these species survive in the wild. Hunting, cattle ranching and agriculture have resulted in the significant decrease of this species.
In late 2005, seven years after a captive breeding facility was established in Mexico, the first 25 peninsular pronghorns were reintroduced to life in the wild.
The Los Angeles Zoo is partnered with the Vizcaino Desert Biosphere Reserve and the Mexican Government in the Peninsular Pronghorn Recovery Project (PPRP). Since 2000, the Zoo has provided both financial assistance as well as personnel support to the PPRP. The Zoo’s breeding herd is a part of nationwide Species Survival Plan for peninsular pronghorns.
An African leopard carries its one-week-old cub inside its enclosure at Ghamadan zoo near Amman July 2, 2008.
There can't be too many things cuter than a red panda baby.
The Knoxville Zoo has a pair of brand new residents. Zoo officials confirm two baby red pandas were born earlier in the week.
The mother is Kumari and the father is Chewbacca. The cubs are on exhibit with their mother, but the zoo staff is keeping a close eye on them.
Since 1977, when Knoxville's first pair of red pandas, Bernice and Buster arrived, the zoo has had 93 births, more than any other North American zoo.
The Knoxville Zoo is also home to the oldest red panda in captivity, Flo, age 18.
There is also a set of twin baby red pandas at the Edmonton Valley Zoo. Tai and Pip, who were born May 26 to Lala, made their first public appearance on Thursday.
The twins were removed shortly after birth when the mother began aggressively holding and grooming one of the babies endangering its life. To ensure their survival, the babies will be hand raised by Sandy Heiliker, the Valley Zoo’s Animal Health Technologist.
It's estimated there are around 2,000 to 5,000 red pandas in the wild, although it's not known how the recent earthquake in Chengdu, China, may have affected this count.
Three Sumatran tiger cubs have been born at Auckland Zoo.
The zoo's big cat keepers are celebrating after discovering the proud mother, eight-year-old Molek, has given birth to triplets nearly a week after the event.
They had been keeping their distance since the birth last Thursday, not wanting to disturb Molek for at least a week.
On Tuesday, they discovered what they had thought was one cub from afar was actually two.
Then, on Wednesday afternoon, they saw a very relaxed Molek lying back with one cub suckling and two others cuddled into her coat.
In light of the fact that there are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers in the wild, and just 160 in captive facilities, the birth of these cubs really is a huge deal, not just for New Zealand, but internationally.
One of two spider monkeys recently added to the Washington Park Zoo broke out of its enclosure this week while workers were cleaning the moat, which had been emptied of water. The spider monkey used a garden hose to scale the wall of the moat.
Zoo Director Johnny Martinez says workers had figured the monkeys would remain inside their enclosure during the cleaning despite the lack of water in the moat to act as a barricade.
Once past the moat, the escaped monkey jumped onto the roof of a water filtration plant and then visited a local boat dealership. The monkey was sitting on top of a white and blue speedboat when captured.
Source: AP
Photo: toonersteve
The Brevard Zoo, in Melbourne, FL, released photos Wednesday of a Chilean pudu born at the zoo on May 21. The female is currently about seven inches long and weighs just over one pound. At birth, she only weighted 475 grams.
Born to Lola and Elroy, the newborn is the parents' first offspring together.
The pudu is found in South America in the southern Andes of Chile and Argentina. Habitat destruction by logging and introduction of larger deer into the pudu habitat is threatening their survival.
Source: wftv.com
China's fauna exhibits a unique diversity of apes. Unfortunately, the apes are more seriously endangered by extinction in China than in any other country. A research team assembled by anthropologists of Zurich University now conclude that another ape species has just become extinct in China's Yunnan province.
Science Daily reports that the 14-member scientific team recently carried out a survey in all Chinese forests. They could not locate a single Yunnan white-handed gibbon. The last time this ape was observed in China was in 1988 at the Nangunhe Nature Reserve in south-western Yunnan province. Their loud, melodious calls were last heard in 1992. This subspecies (Hylobates lar yunnanensis) is not known from any other place.
Luckily, these apes are not lost to us forever. Several zoos have included them in their programs. One is the Honolulu Zoo. On their web page, you can hear the call of the white-handed gibbon:
listen
You can also see pictures of Emma, an adorable baby white-handed gibbon, born in 2000. Here's a picture of Emma, 7 hours after birth.
This is Jenny. Jenny is recognized as the world's oldest gorilla in captivity
Gorillas in the wild normally would live to age 30 or 35, but health care and protection from predators has extended their lifespan in zoos. Of the roughly 360 gorillas in North American zoos, only four are over the age of 50. All of them are female. Jenny is the oldest of them all at 55.
Caretakers at the Dallas Zoo, where Jenny lives, celebrated her birthday with a four-layer frozen fruit cake and banana leaf wrapped treats.
Source: Live Science
A tiger cub born on Mother's Day at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium is not getting much TLC from its mother.
Tiger-keepers are working around the clock to find out why the cub's mother, Toma, isn't being receptive to her newborn.
Zoo officials think Toma might be sick or possibly carrying another cub.
The two-pound cub is being kept at an animal hospital. If the cub does not receive attention from its mother, it can be raised successfully by tiger-keepers at the zoo.
Source: KDKA
Su Lin, a 2-year-old giant panda at the San Diego Zoo, enjoyed the cool feel of snow on an unusually hot day in San Diego on April 27, 2008. The San Diego Zoo's Giant Panda Research Station was covered in 15 tons of snow on Sunday. In two weeks, on May 10, the Zoo's polar bear exhibit will be blanketed with snow as part of Bear Awareness Days, presented by Mission Federal Credit Union. The fun and educational four-day event discusses bear conservation efforts.
(UPI Photo/Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo)
The Sichuan takin, an unusual-looking relative of the musk ox, looks like a small moose, climbs like a mountain goat, has short curved horns like a gnu, and snorts. Takin stand 3 to 4 feet tall. The animals eat grasses, shrubs, and leaves. They are able to stand on their hind legs and reach branches 10 feet off the ground. Takin are rare in North American zoos. Only 50 takin are found in 12 zoos in North America.
The baby takin was born on exhibit Wednesday morning at the zoo. Zookeepers knew the animal was pregnant, but didn't know when the calf was going to be born.
Source: StarTribune
African wild dogs, native to the vast and beautiful sub-Saharan Africa, are making the Los Angeles Zoo their home for the first time in nearly 40 years.
The African wild dog is an endangered species. It is estimated that the total population is fewer than 5,000 dogs.
L.A. Zoo's pair of dogs, courtesy of New York’s Bronx Zoo, is two of just under 150 African wild dogs in zoos across the United States.
These dogs are part of an aggressive plan to try and preserve the species. A number of zoos, including the L.A. Zoo, are looking to help wild dog conservation efforts by participating in the Species Survival Plan Program (SSP) established in 1981 by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The program tracks a species’ genetic ancestry so that appropriate mates can be found for the animal in question. For example, the L.A. Zoo has two wild dogs, but since they are brother and sister, it would be inappropriate to breed them. In the future, if the Zoo were to receive a breeding recommendation, the Zoo would work with the AZA to locate suitable mates for the dogs. A zoo that has a compatible mate would then exchange that animal with the L.A. Zoo so that the quality breeding programs could continue.
Raja, the rare Asiatic lion cub born at a Japanese zoo is one of only about 300 left in the world.
Link to video
Only the 12th of its species in a zoo in the United States, this crested capuchin was born last week at the Santa Ana Zoo.
Zookeepers don't know the baby's sex yet - but it sure is a little cutie!
Source: OC Register
A Schmidt's red-tailed guenon was born at the Houston Zoo. It's the first birth of the species at the zoo in 29 years.
According to the zoo, there are only 37 of the monkeys living in ten zoos in the United States.
via: Animal Attraction
Germany's celebrity polar bear Knut has become so addicted to the limelight that he throws tantrums when he's denied an audience, one of his keepers says.
Berlin Zoo's Markus Roebke has told British newspapers that Knut howls with anger when he feels like he's not getting enough attention.
Roebke says Knut needs to be moved to another zoo, away from the public eye. "Knut must go and the sooner the better," he said. "As long as he is with us he will always think of Thomas Doerflein, the keeper who brought him up when he was a baby, as his father. Knut needs publicity and that must change,"
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
