ZooBorns

Yellow Mongoose Pups Just Days Old

Three Yellow Mongoose babies were born last Sunday night (about one week ago from when these pictures were taken) to first time parents Basil and Sybil at Durrell Wildlife Trust. Yellow Mongoose litters usually consist of one or two individuals so having three is currently keeping Sybil very busy, but she is proving to be a great first time mom. Yellow Mongooses live with meerkats in the wild, and this natural behaviour is replicated at the conservation charity’s headquarters in the Channel Islands.

At the moment the new babies are being kept hidden away by mum, their eyes have not yet opened and they are not strong enough to fend for themselves. But in another week or so they will be exploring outside, meeting their meerkat neighbours and in just a couple of months they will be completely weaned!

Feisty Mongoose Pups Pop into Central Park

The Wildlife Conservation Society's Central Park Zoo welcomed four Banded Mongoose pups this month and they have just been moved to the Tropic Zone where the public can enjoy their playful antics. The rambunctious babies' rough-housing mimics the boldness adult mongooses are famous for. Banded Mongooses live in groups of up to 70 individuals and multiple females will often give birth to their litters on the exact same day. 

Photo credits: Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society

Teeny Tiny Mongeese

Two Dwarf Mongoose Pups, each the size of a chocolate bar, have been spotted enjoying the September sunshine in Chester Zoo. Squeaks were heard by the keepers three weeks ago but the pups were not seen until they ventured outside in the Mongoose Mania enclosure. With a diet of mice, locusts and meal worms, this species normally live to about 10 years old and can grow up to 12 inches long. Dwarf Mongoose Pups are the smallest of all African carnivores and normally deliver one to six pups. The adult pair has been in the zoo since 2009.  They were moved to the Mongoose Mania enclosure in March this year. 

Photo credits: Chester Zoo / Stuart Robinson

Many Mongooses for Fort Wayne Children's Zoo

Fort Wayne Children's Zoo's Banded Mongoose baby boom continues!  Five baby Banded Mongooses, born on August 2, made their exhibit debut this week.  Combined with seven babies born in November, six babies born in March, and our original seven adults, Fort Wayne now has twenty five Mongooses in the colony.

Photo Credits: Fort Wayne Children's Zoo

Baby Mongoose Is Plotting Something...

A litter of six baby Banded Mongoose pups were born Thanksgiving Day at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. After spending their first few weeks in the nest box, the babies have begun chirping, playing, and harassing  the almost outnumbered seven adults in the enclosure. 

 

 

Baby Mongoose Pups at the Odense Zoo

Baby mongooses were out exploring yesterday at Denmark's Odense Zoo. A curious and social species, the Common Dwarf Mongoose can live to 20 years in captivity. Celebrated in ancient Egypt for their fearlessness, mongooses were sometimes mummified and buried in Egyptian tombs to serve as guardians.

Dwarf Mongoose Pups Pop into the Bronx Zoo

Meet the Bronx Zoo's newest arrivals: three Dwarf Mongoose pups. Curious, playful and apparently rather hyper, the three pups are exploring their surroundings in the Giraffe Building. Native to sub-Saharan Africa, Dwarf Mongooses are Africa's smallest carnivore. Despite being quite feisty in the wild, Dwarf Mongooses living near human settlements often become tame.

Photo Credit: Bill Holmstrom / ©WCS

Photo Credit: J.L. Maher / ©WCS

Yellow, Red, Tan or Taupe... Mongooses!

Native to Africa, the Yellow Mongoose is also called the Red Meerkat (apparently no one can agree on it's color). A feisty little carnivore, yellow mongooses communicate mostly with swishes of their yellow/red/orange/burnt sienna tails. These little guys were recently born at the UK's Marwell Zoo. 

Perth Meerkat Pups: "Meer"ly Practicing for Primetime

The Perth Zoo has three new arrivals and they recently went on display. Meerkats have a unique form of communication, at the center of which is the sentinel guard.  At least one individual stands guard while the group is away from the den.  In the event of an approaching threat, the guard lets out a high pitched squeal, alerting his or her pals to the danger.

Here, two of the babies practice their best sentinel stances in preparation for guard duty.

Huddled together, the pups (whom I have decided to name Wynken', Blynken', and Nod; from Left to Right) make a formidable team. This meerkat moment was brought to you by photographer 'Galah.

"Wild" Animal Encounters

Spotted:  Interspecies conoodling at the San Francisco Zoo...

Photographer Susan Pettitt caught these kangaroos coming nose to nose with a wild squirrel just the other day at the San Francisco Zoo...

Meanwhile, at the Artis Zoo, A.J. Haverkamp comes through again with some heart warming photos of Dayo the gorilla baby coming face to face with a meerkat and her own baby...

Momma meerkat valiantly protects her babe, but we suspect Dayo is "meer"ly curious...