On Tuesday, September 13 and Wednesday, September 14, starting at 8pm both nights, Nat Geo WILD is airing a special program devoted to sustaining vulnerable species called Miracle Babies. In five hour-long episodes, viewers gain a window into the world of baby pandas, leopards, Tasmanian devils, lemurs, koalas, wallabies, ibises, parrots, and more.
Watch a video below of cute baby pandas raised in captivity in Chengdu, China:
Watch a video below of adorable baby sifaka lemurs:
Watch a video below of two baby Tasmanian devils (one baby even gets hiccups after feeding):
One of the new cubs at the Franklin Park Zoo peers at out of the nest box. Photo: Rebecca King Clayman/ Zoo New England via AP
A pair of red pandas were born at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, MA on July 4. The male and female cubs will be on public view by the end of October. Until then, the cubs will remain in a nest box with their mother.
In the wild, red pandas inhabit bamboo forests in China, the Himalyas, and Myanmar. The IUCN has classified them as vulnerable for extinction with fewer than 10,000 mature red pandas alive in the wild. Threats to the red panda include habitat loss and fragmentation as well as poaching.
The Wildlife Center of Virginia releases one of five juvenile eaglets into the wild. Photo by the Wildlife Center of Virginia.
On Wednesday, the Wildlife Center of Virginia had cause for celebration when they released five juvenile bald eagles into the wild.
Three of the eagles were famous because a webcam had been tracking their daily activities in their nest at a botanical garden. However, when their mother was killed after being struck by an airplane in April, webcam viewers became concerned for the chicks and alerted the wildlife rescuers. So the Wildlife Center of Virginia took the chicks into their care.
The other two eaglets were rescued independently; one was found in a landfill with its wing caught in some netting, and the other was found in a field in an emaciated condition.
For more information about the eagles’ release, see:
Construction of the ZooShare Biogas Cooperative plant in Toronto will begin soon, and in 2012, excrement from Toronto Zoo animals like rhinos and bison along with food waste from a grocery retailer will produce 4 million kilowatt hours a year, enough energy to power 350 homes every day, for a year.
The process works when the waste and bacteria ferment and gas bubbles of methane come to the surface. The gas is captured and burned, producing energy.
In 2012, poop from animals like this rhino at the Toronto Zoo will be converted into energy. Photo credit: leander.canaris
May 1st saw the hatching of a rare all-white kiwi at the Pukaha Mount Bruce national wildlife center in New Zealand. The bird is not an albino, but does have white feathers. He was given the Manukura by members of the local Maori tribe.
Manukura is thought to be the first all-white kiwi born in captivity.
Kiwi are native to New Zealand and have had their population numbers drop, mainly due to the European stoat, an introduced species. All five species of kiwi are endangered.
Watch a fascinating TED talk by wildlife photographer Paul Nicklen. In his presentation, Nicklen puts faces to the animals living in the polar regions where glacier ice, the foundation of their habitat, is disappearing at an alarming rate.
To learn more about Paul Nicklen, you can see our post reviewing the live talk Animal Fact Guide editors attended last year.
A new Grevy’s zebra foal made her debut recently at the Bronx Zoo. Named Terri, the little foal can be seen at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s African Plains exhibit. Baby zebras are born with brown stripes that darken to black as they mature.
In the wild, Grevy’s zebras are considered endangered by the IUCN Redlist. Their range is limited to parts of Ethiopia and Kenya. Threats include a reduction in water sources, loss of habitat, hunting, and disease.
For more information on the baby zebra, see Gather News.
An injured adult sandhill crane and an orphaned crane chick bond at SeaWorld. Photo provided by SeaWorld.
A few weeks ago, the aviculture team at SeaWorld Orlando took into their care an adult sandhill crane with a rubber gasket stuck around his bill. The gasket not only made it impossible for the crane to eat, it impeded upon the proper development of his bill. The SeaWorld team removed the gasket and provided around-the-clock care to rehabilitate the bird.
While caring for the adult, SeaWorld rescued a newly-hatched, orphaned sandhill crane chick. Although older cranes sometimes do not tolerate unfamiliar chicks, the team decided to see if their rescued adult might act as a surrogate for the chick. And to everyone’s delight, the pair bonded!
By taking the orphan under wing, the adult crane has given the chick the opportunity to mimic and learn behaviors needed to survive in the wild. Eric Reece, SeaWorld’s Supervisor of Aviculture, adds, “The fact that the adult crane took to the chick bodes well for the development of the chick. It is now growing and doing well.”
Once the adult crane has recovered from his injuries and the chick learns to fly, both birds will be released into the wild together.
Starting today guests at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida will get to see an unlikely pair – a cheetah cub and a yellow Labrador puppy. The 8-week-old cheetah was taken in last month because his mother was unable to care for him. Last week the animal care team decided on the 16-week-old puppy as a companion. The two will live together in Jambo Junction, a part of the Nairobi area of the park.
The park has opened a poll on their Facebook page to allow voting on what to the name the pair. Voting ends on Monday, April 18.
UPDATE: The cheetah cub has been named Kasi, which is Swahili for “one with speed.”
May 1st saw the hatching of a rare all-white kiwi at the Pukaha Mount Bruce national wildlife center in New Zealand. The bird is not an albino, but does have white feathers. He was given the Manukura by members of the local Maori tribe.
Subscribe to RSS Feed