ZooBorns

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...