Anne-Marie Verbruggen places a contact lens in the left eye of Win Thida, a 44-year-old Asian elephant at the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam. Photo by Artis Zoo.

Did you know that contact lenses are not just for people?  At the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands, veterinarian Anne-Marie Verbruggen fitted an Asian elephant with a special contact lens.  The 44-year-old elephant, named Win Thida, suffered from a scratched cornea after fighting with another elephant.  The contact lens will protect the eye while it heals.

This was the first time Verbruggen fitted an elephant with a contact lens, however, she has had experience giving horses contact lenses.  With the elephant, the challenge was with the massive size and weight of the animal.  According to Verbruggen, “Elephants can’t lie down for long before their immense weight impairs their breathing, so I used a ladder to get close enough. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. She seemed happier straight away.”

For more information, see Spiegel Online.

Did you know you can FedEx a panda? On January 15, two pandas named Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, who were born at the famous Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, boarded a specially-chartered Boeing 777F flight known as the “FedEx Panda Express.”

During the non-stop flight to Paris, France (5,489 miles away), the pair of pandas passed the time snoozing and eating bamboo in custom-built enclosures. They were accompanied by a Chinese veterinarian and animal handler as well as the managing director from ZooParc de Beauval, their new home.

(Click image for larger PDF of the infographic.)

FedEx Express has a long history of transporting rare and delicate cargo, including other pandas, polar bears, white tigers, elephants, penguins, mountain lions, gorillas, eagles, and even a 13-foot tiger shark used in filming the movie “Jaws.”

For more information about Huan Huan and Yuan Zi’s trip, see the FedEx Blog.

To learn more about pandas, see Animal Fact Guide’s article, Giant Panda.

There were so many adorable baby animals born in 2011.  Here are a few highlights:

Baldest Baby: This baby aardvark was born at Busch Gardens Tampa on April 10, 2011. He was hand-reared by zookeepers because his mother was neglecting him.

Oldest Mother: Five Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoise hatchlings were born on November 15  to a century-old tortoise in a South Carolina zoo after she hid the eggs from zookeepers for months.

Best Gremlin Impersonator: The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore welcomed a male baby Coquerel’s sifaka on November 12 and named him Nero. Sifakas are a kind of lemur who move by leaping through trees or side-hopping on the ground.

Roundest Face: A pair of red pandas were born at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, MA on July 4. In the wild, red pandas inhabit bamboo forests in China, the Himalyas, and Myanmar.

Unlikely Friends: An 8-week-old cheetah (born in February) was paired with a 16-week-old yellow lab at Busch Gardens Tampa. The two adolescents became great pals.

Most Smiley: A dolphin calf was born on July 26th at SeaWorld Orlando. Here he is bonding with his mother.

Whitest Kiwi: Two rare all-white kiwis were born this year at Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Center in New Zealand.  Manukura was born in May and was the first of its kind born in captivity.  Mauriora was born in December. The two white kiwis are North Island brown kiwis who carry a rare white gene. They are not albinos.

Hope you enjoyed our roundup of amazing animal babies of 2011. Happy New Year!

A new female baby giraffe arrived on Tuesday, December 27 at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. The newborn measures 5 feet 7 inches and weighs 127 pounds. She was born to father Jafari and mother Tesa.  Tesa and the calf will be monitored for three months before joining the other free-roaming animals on Busch Gardens’ 65-acre Serengeti Plain habitat.

The Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre in New Zealand welcomed a rare baby bird on Sunday.  The white kiwi chick, named Mauriora – meaning “sustained life” in Maori -  is the second of its kind to be born in captivity.  The first white kiwi born in captivity hatched in May and is name Manukura.

The two white kiwis are North Island brown kiwi who carry a rare white gene. They are not albinos.

This snub-nosed monkey with an Elvis hairstyle is one of over 200 new species discovered in the Greater Mekong region. © Martin Aveling/Fauna and Flora International

In the Greater Mekong region of Asia, which covers Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, scientists have recently discovered over 200 new species. The list includes 145 plants, 28 reptiles, 25 fish, 7 amphibians, 2 mammals, and 1 bird.

One interesting find is the snub-nosed monkey, which has to keep its head between its knees when it rains so water doesn’t get into its nose. Another noteworthy discovery is a self-cloning lizard, which is an all-female species.

For more information and a photo slideshow of more of these fascinating species, see:

The Telegraph
World Wildlife Fund

The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore welcomed a male baby Coquerel’s sifaka on November 12 and named him Nero. At birth, the baby lemur weighed 94 grams, about the weight of a deck of cards. According to Meredith Wagoner, mammal collection and conservation manager, “Sifaka are born with sparse hair and resemble tiny gremlins, however their white hair soon grows in, and they begin to resemble their parents.”

In the wild, Coquerel’s sifaka inhabit the island of Madagascar. They are endangered as a result of habitat loss from deforestation. Sifaka are different from other lemurs in the way they hop through treetops in an upright posture using only their hind legs. They propel themselves on the ground by side-hopping on their hind legs.

To learn more, see the Maryland Zoo website.

Wildscreen, an international conservation charity, has launched a new free app called Survival for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.

The app features a series of quickfire games that test your knowledge of endangered animals.  Beautiful graphics and photos from the charity’s ARKive enhance the gaming experience.

Download the app here: Survival

Although she is over a hundred years old, Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens resident Alberta didn’t let her age stop her from motherhood. Alberta, a Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoise, hid her eggs and nest from keepers for months while they incubated. On Thursday, the zookeepers made a surprising discovery of four hatchlings in a buried nest. A fifth baby was later found wandering around the exhibit.

The babies are currently small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. But Galapagos tortoises can reach 400 kg (880 lb.) in their long lifetime.

Galapagos tortoises are the largest species of tortoise. In the wild, they inhabit the Galapagos Islands, which are located 1,000 km (620 mi) west of Ecuador. They are considered vulnerable of extinction by the IUCN Redlist.

To learn more, see:
The State
Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens

A baby Grevy’s zebra was born at Busch Gardens Tampa on November 4. Within an hour of her birth, the little zebra was running with the rest of the herd.