The St. Louis Zoo had an exceptional year when it came to zoo babies. As a Christmas treat, I give you the cute, the furry, the frolicking, and the fun.
Kalama was born in August, 2008. There are now only 2,200 Grevy's Zebras in the wild, but there's a healthy population in zoos. The same can also be said of our next baby, a giraffe who was famous literally from birth.
Read on...
Printer friendly versionThe St. Louis Zoo is a favorite place of mine, but the web site for the Zoo doesn't provide all the back stories to the animals. Or at least, not as many as I would like.
Happily, I spotted a story on the Amur Tiger cubs' father, Khuntami by Dr. Jeffrey Bonner, in St. Louis Today—the latest in a year long series on the Zoo. I asked the St. Louis Today for links to the other articles, and the site was kind enough to link the others in.
This is a wonderful series, which I now see is also linked more prominently at the Zoo site. What I especially like about the series is that it focuses on the Zoo's conservation efforts, rather than the "entertainment" items, so many other zoos feature so prominently. For instance, the Amur tiger cubs are winners with the public, true. How could they not be? What's more important, though, is that the Amur tiger is one of the rarest cats in the world, and these five tiger cubs are especially critical for the program to save this endangered cat. The cubs' father, Khuntami, was born in the wild, and orphaned as a cub. His genetic contribution to the Amur Tiger breeding program has been invaluable in the desperate attempt to save this beautiful cat.
But yeah, OK, they are cute little buggers.
More St. Louis Zoo photos.
Printer friendly versionEarlier this week I made a mid-day visit to the zoo to see our five newest St. Louis citizens: the five new Amur (Siberian) tiger cubs. They're only allowed out a couple of hours a day, but in that time they manage to cover ever inch of their not small habitat at least a dozen times.
The habitat is viewed from above, as the side view is blocked by the zoo train. Needless to say, the numbers of people were many and access to get a clear photo, limited. However, you don't have to have a good photo when you're taking pictures of tiger cubs.
Printer friendly version A welcome break from the flooding occurred Saturday, June 14th, when one of the giraffes at the St. Louis Zoo gave birth to a baby in front of about 400 surprised zoo goers.
I wasn't there that day, but did go out the following Tuesday to take photos, including this one of mother and son.
The giraffes are in one of the mixed species habitats, sharing the space with a couple of gazelles and an ostrich. The other critters weren't sure about this new stranger in their space, but the ostrich, in particular, would follow the baby around.
The ostrich became a little too aggressive and a little too close and the mother giraffe moved alongside of the bird and kicked her legs straight out to the side, pushing the bird away from the baby. The bird wasn't hurt, but did get the message.
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