12/19/2023 0 Comments Small monkey bongo teapotThe first-time parents have been together for 27 years, and the births were a coup for them as well as for the zoo: Marabous, native to Africa, are quite difficult to breed without a very large group of birds around. The stork delivered to a couple of its own on February 8 and 11, when a pair of female chicks hatched, one after the other, to the delight of mom Mabel and dad Milton. Amelia, named after a character on the TV show Lost just like the rest of the gerenuks here, was nonetheless thrilled the first day she joined the public exhibit, and she made it known with her joyous pronking-jumping high into the air by lifting all fours off the ground simultaneously (something also done when evading a predator). That's why the keepers are hand-raising this playful girl, bottle feeding her goat-milk formula five times a day and recently starting her on a diet of leaves, apples, carrots and dietary pellets. They are also fragile and skittish by nature, especially females. This long-necked antelope, born on December 23, 2011, to mom Claire and dad Boone, spent the first couple months of her life in the zoo's animal hospital-but only to keep her warm while a new gerenuk barn was being built (native to East Africa, gerenuks don't take well to the cold). Despite his bashfulness, Cooper is on exhibit with the rest of the herd daily. The Big Bang Theory is a favorite show of the zookeepers, and Cooper was born on December 17, 2011, to mom Penny and father Leonard (who unfortunately passed away last year). You can hardly blame him, though, as Red Brockets average only two feet high and a mere 30 pounds when fully grown-which is not much when compared to the 100-300-pound average of white-tailed deer. Just like his namesake-awkward intellectual Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory-young Cooper has some issues with his social skills: He is, just like the rest of his species, extremely shy and wary of others, explains Michelle Hatwood, hoofstock manager at the Phoenix Zoo. $18, children 3-12 $9, children 2 and under free 455 N Galvin Parkway, Phoenix 602/673-1341 Click through the slideshow to see the animals to see all the fascinating faces, and don't forget to vote for the cutest zoo baby of 2012! SEE 2012'S CUTEST ZOO BABIES And while a new baby is always something to be excited about, many of these are part of endangered species (including one that is officially extinct in the wild) and represent the future of their kind. The creatures run the gamut from great and small, from a 120-pound camel and a 72-inch giraffe to a two-ounce golden lion tamarin and a six-inch-long Rio Cauca Caecilian (aka a rubber eel). A few of the babes don't have names-or even a gender!-yet, and zoos are letting the public weigh in on names. They were all born within the last six months, some thanks to strategic matchmaking from zoo to zoo (did you know there was online dating in the animal world?). Spring has sprung, and zoos around the country are celebrating a baby boom! We can't get enough of all critters cute and cuddly, even if some have a face only a mother could love (check out the baby aardvark).
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