Ratu, a rare Sumatran rhino, is pregnant!

In February 2010, we posted about Ratu, a rare Sumatran rhino, being pregnant. Unfortunately, she miscarried after two months. However, the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia has announced that Ratu is pregnant again! Currently, she is in her eleventh month of gestation. Her pregnancy will most likely last another four or five months.

To help prevent Ratu from miscarrying again, sanctuary staff give her a hormone supplement daily. Within the sanctuary, she is free to roam and graze in a large forested area with natural plants and mud, just as she would in the wild.

Ratu was originally a wild rhino. She was taken into the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, which offers 250 acres of protected land, after coming in contact with villagers nearby. Andalas, who mated with Ratu last year to produce this recent pregnancy, was a captively-bred rhino from the Cincinnati Zoo.

Sumatran rhinos are in grave danger of becoming extinct. According to the International Rhino Foundation:

The Sumatran rhino is one of the world’s most critically endangered species, numbering no more than 200 individuals in Indonesia and Malaysia. The species is seriously threatened by the continuing loss of its tropical forest habitat and hunting pressure from poachers, who kill rhinos for their valuable horns. Every Sumatran rhino birth – in the wild, in a zoo or in a special sanctuary – represents hope for the survival of this species, which runs the risk of going extinct by the end of this century.

Learn more at the International Rhino Foundation website.

The first baby giraffe of 2012 was born at Busch Gardens. The female giraffe calf measures 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 176 pounds. She and her mother are currently being monitored by zoo staff. They will rejoin the herd in three months.

Busch Gardens welcomed a new female giraffe to their herd.

Slurp! The newborn giraffe gets a nice cleaning by her mother.

Just a newborn, the female giraffe measures 6 feet 2 inches tall!

To learn more about giraffes, see Animal Fact Guide’s article: Giraffe.

Two Amur (or Siberian) tiger cubs and mother Marta went on display at the Toledo Zoo in Ohio. The cubs were born on September 26, 2011.

Amur tigers are the largest subspecies of tiger, averaging  about 3.3 m (11 ft.) in length, with a tail measuring 1 m (3 ft.). Adult male tigers can weigh up to 320 kg (700 lb.), while female tigers are significantly smaller, weighing up to 180 kg (400 lb.).

To learn more about Amur tigers, see Animal Fact Guide’s article Siberian Tiger.

To learn more about the Amur tiger cubs, see NorthwestOhio.com.

In the wee hours of New Year’s Day, the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa welcomed a new baby Malayan tapir.  The female calf is healthy, weighing about 15 pounds (and gaining).

Baby tapirs have a spotted pattern to help camouflage them from predators. Eventually, the baby’s spotted coat will fade to a solid black and white pattern. In the wild, Malayan tapirs are endangered, inhabiting the rainforests of Southeast Asia.  Their population is threatened by human activity like deforestation and illegal trade.

For more information, see:
WTSP.com
Lowry Park Zoo Facebook page

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.

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.

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

Visitors to the Bronx Zoo can now see a 5-month-old okapi calf!  Okapis are distinctive animals that look like a cross between a zebra and horse but are actually more closely related to giraffes.  Okapi babies are unique in that they do not defecate for 4-8 weeks after birth. This is a natural defense that reduces any scents that may draw predators near while the baby is vulnerable.