ZooBorns

It's All Black and White: Baby Zebra Born at Paignton Zoo!

The UK's Paignton Zoo is celebrating its first zebra birth in a decade when a new baby Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra was born in the early morning on February 28 to six-year-old mom Goma. Senior Head Keeper of Mammals Matthew Webb said: “We had to help him get to his feet, but after that he started to suckle well.” The as-of-yet unnamed foal is thought to be a male. 

“This is great news," said Paignton Zoo Director of Operations and Curator of Mammals Neil Bemment said. "We need more foals to increase the zoo population and, as there is presently a lack of available males in the European Endangered species Program, he will certainly have a future part to play in saving his species.”

A single foal is born after a gestation of 11.5 months (350 days). Some populations are protected in national parks. There is a European Endangered species Program (EEP) for this zebra managed by Marwell Zoo.  

Photo Credit: Paignton Zoo

Read more about Zebras after the jump!

Second Grevy's Zebra Foal For Great Plains Zoo

Trinity, the 10-year-old Grevy's Zebra at Great Plains Zoo in South Dakota gave birth to a male foal weighing 80 pounds (36.28 kg). After a 13-month gestation, zebras give birth to a single foal. The foal typically weighs between 50 and 80 pounds. The Zoo’s animal care staff monitored the new family through the video camera system.

“Grevy’s Zebras are facing extinction, so this is a very important birth, not only for the Zoo, but for the survival of the entire Grevy’s Zebra population,” said Elizabeth A. Whealy, President and CEO of the Great Plains Zoo. “Our Zoo plays a crucial role in maintaining the captive breeding population.”

Just like human newborns, the foal will spend much of his time sleeping, eating and settling in with his mother. He and his mother can be seen in the arena of the Hoofstock winter viewing building. This is the second foal born at the Zoo -- in September, the Zoo’s other 10-year-old Grevy’s named Demani also gave birth to a male weighing 100 pounds. That foal is thriving. The Zoo plans to ask the public for help in naming the pair of zebra foals in the new year.

Photo Credit: Great Plains Zoo

Busch Gardens Baby Boom Continues With Zebra Birth!

A new Zebra was born on Busch Gardens’ 65-acre Serengeti Plain on Friday, November 4.  Within an hour after its birth, the female foal was running with the rest of the herd and nursing from its mother.

Just last week, Busch Gardens announced two other additions, a male Cape buffalo, and female Sable antelope.

It's a Boy! Baby Grevy's Zebra Born at Great Plains Zoo

The Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has a new Grevy's Zebra baby born over Labor Day weekend to mother Demani.

"It's a healthy baby boy. He's pretty cute," said Allison Douglass, area supervisor at the Zoo.

The newborn has no name yet and is not seeing visitors. He's secluded in a birthing stall with his mom.
He weighs 100 pounds and his mother close to 1,000. Douglass said everything about the delivery was normal. Labor lasted a half-hour. The foal came out of the birth canal front feet first and then the head. He was up and moving around in 30 minutes and nursing within an hour.

If any birth is routine, then the dramatic element in Demani's delivery is her son's place in the world. He is a Grevy's zebra, a species that scientists say is endangered. Africa had 15,000 Grevy's zebras in the late 1970s. The population now is one-sixth that, about 2,500 in the wild, after 30 years of disturbance from people and competition from domestic grazing animals.

Photo Credit: Great Plains Zoo

Spunky Zebra Foal Springs Into The World

This striking zebra foal was born at South Australia’s Monarto Zoo on August 7 in the early hours of the morning. It’s a little girl and her keepers say they are pleased with her progress. She is nursing well, looking strong and has lots of confidence.

On August 7, in the early hours of the morning, the foal’s mum, Kenya, gave birth in the night yard with plenty of company -- she was surrounded by the rest of the dazzle (a collective noun for zebras). This is Kenya’s second foal.

She has quickly become a favorite at Monarto Zoo, and she needs a name! All who wish to make a name suggestion can enter it by clicking HERE.

Photo Credit David Mattner/Monarto Zoo

 

Striking Stripes: Grevy's Zebra Baby Just Born

This female Grevy's Zebra named Lisa was just born at California's B Bryan Preserve on June 2, 2011. Foals can walk just 20 minutes after they are born, which is an important survival adaptation for this migrating species. Their coats sport dazzling narrow stripes that wrap around in a concentric pattern and are bisected by a black stripe running down the spine.

Lisa is enjoying some solitary bonding time with her mother Sarah, but will join the rest of the 9 mares living on the preserve in a few weeks. Grevy’s are social animals. The basic social unit is comprised of a female mare with one or two young. However, mixed groups of 100 to 200, sometimes up to 450 zebras, are not uncommon during migration and around water points in the dry season.

Social grooming plays a large role in social bonding. They communicate using facial expressions and sounds, and groom each other by biting and nibbling each other to scratch and remove loose hairs. 

Photo Credit: B Bryan Preserve

The Grevy’s zebra is the largest, wildest and most untamable of the three zebra species remaining in Africa. This beauty is one of several critically endangered Grevy’s Zebras that the preserve is trying to breed in captivity to sustain the species. There are less than 2,000 of these beautiful zebra species left in the world, mostly restricted to restricted to Ethiopia and northern Kenya.

B Bryan Preserve, located in Point Arena on the coast of Northern California, is committed to the breeding and conservation of the critically endangered Grevy's zebra, endangered Mountain Zebra and Kudu, Roan and Sable Antelope.

 

Detroit Zoo Welcomes Brown and White Bundle of Joy

Detroit Zoo welcomed a brown and white bundle of joy to its fold on April 17th. After a 13 month gestation period, Jimmy the Grevy's Zebra foal stumbled onto the scene and was up on his feet in just a few hours. Wild Grevy's Zebras must quickly learn to stand and run to escape the potential threat of predators. This endangered East African species is declining in numbers due to habitat loss and competition with livestock.

Yipes! Stripes! It's a Rare Grevy's Zebra Foal!

A male Grevy’s Zebra was born at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens on Saturday, February 26. Eclipse, the 17-year-old mother of the foal, came to the Jacksonville Zoo from White Oak Conservation Center, where she was bred in January 2010.   Officials from White Oak advised that the father of the foal is an unnamed resident stallion born in 1999.  This is Eclipse’s sixth birth.  The foal weighed 108 pounds and stood at three and a half feet tall at the shoulders at birth.  Guests can see the foal frolicking after his mother in the Zoo’s Plains of East Africa exhibit.  Naming rights will be auctioned off at the Zoo’s annual ExZOOberation evening fundraiser on April 16, 2011.

Photo credits: John Reed Photography

Unlike other types of Zebras, Grevy’s Zebras face a dire extinction crisis.  More than 15,000 of these animals roamed the savannas of Africa in the 1970s, but scientists estimate only 2,200 remain in the wild today.  The Zoo supports conservation efforts to save the Grevy’s zebra, including participation in a Species Survival Plan (SSP) through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).  This SSP allows the Zoo to work with other AZA-accredited organizations to help ensure the survivability of the Grevy’s Zebra for future generations.

Blackpool Zoo Earns Its Stripes

Ecstatic keepers at Blackpool Zoo have really earned their stripes after becoming the first UK team to successfully breed a Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra in the last nine years. The foal is also the first of its species to arrive in the whole of Europe in 2011, with just 12 born around the globe in 2010. Named Tebogo, a South African name which means ‘we are thankful’, by keepers, he takes the number of Hartmann’s Mountain Zebras in captivity in the UK to 14.

Photo credits: Blackpool Zoo

Brown Stripes for a Baby Zebra

A Grant’s Zebra was born Saturday, July 31 at the Kansas City Zoo to Mom, Jet, and Dad, Zanthus. She has brown stripes instead of black and weighed in at 79 pounds. Brown stripes are natural among newborn zebras; they will turn to black when she is between 9 and 18 months old. Every zebra has a different pattern of stripes. The stripes help them avoid predator attacks as they make it hard for a zebra hungry hunter to single out one animal from a fleeing herd.

Photo credits: Kansas City Zoo