Leahgates

Zoo Miami has announced its first successful hatching of a Victoria Crowned Pigeon!  The single chick hatched on November 30 after being artificially incubated in the zoo’s brooder building for 28 days. 

Victoria Crowned Pigeons are the world’s largest living pigeons, reaching a length of nearly 30 inches (76.2 cm) and weighing close to five pounds (2.27 kg).  They are one of the closest living relatives of the now extinct Dodo bird.  Found in the lowland forests of New Guinea and portions of Indonesia, these stunning birds are classified as Near Threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Species' Red List. Main threats are deforestation for logging as well as by hunting for food and their ornate feathers.  These birds are found in small flocks on the forest floor foraging for seeds, fruit and snails.  Distinguished by their ornate fan of crest feathers and deep red eyes, adults are mainly blue in color with accents of deep burgundy and small highlights of white.   

Victoria Crowned Pigeons are monogamous birds that mate for life. The male courts the female by lowering and bobbing his head, fanning his tail, and emitting rapid booming sounds. He then brings the female sticks which she uses to construct a nest and both parents share in the incubation duties. Unlike most other birds, pigeons, both males and females, produce a special 'crop milk' which is used to feed the single chick for the first few weeks of its life. Once this chick is weaned, the hope is to introduce it into Zoo Miami’s “Wings of Asia” aviary exhibit.

Photo credit: Zoo Miami

The endangered Okapi is the symbol of Belgium’s Antwerp Zoo, and rightly so – the 50^th Okapi calf to be born at the zoo arrived on December 27.  Named Oni, this female calf is part of the zoo’s important Okapi breeding program, which began when the first Okapi arrived there in 1919.

Photo Credit:  © ZOO Antwerpen / Jonas Verhulst

Oni is the second calf to be born to female Hakima and is doing well, according to zoo staff.  Like all Okapis, Oni has a unique pattern of stripes on her hindquarters.  She joins a group of seven Okapi at the zoo, including her sister Mchawi, who was born in 2011.

Antwerp Zoo manages the worldwide studbook for Okapi and coordinates the European breeding program for the species.  In this role, the zoo maintains data on every zoo-born Okapi in the world, reviews the data, and determines which pairings will result in the highest genetic diversity in any offspring.   Efforts like this are crucial to the survival of the endangered Okapi, whose wild population has plummeted by 75% in the last decade. 

There are currently 170 Okapi in zoos worldwide, but scientists estimate that 270 Okapi are needed to sustain a genetically healthy captive population. To reach this target, 13 Okapi births are needed each year for the next several decades 

Closely related to Giraffes, only 10,000 Okapi survive in the dense rain forests of Africa’s Congo basin.  Deforestation, hunting, and political instability threaten their future.  The Antwerp Zoo supports an Okapi reserve that serves as a refuge for these animals.

The Chicago Zoological Society, which manages Brookfield Zoo, has announced its first birth of 2014: a Grey Seal pup that also happens to be the first of its species ever born at the zoo. The male pup was born on New Year’s Day around 7:00 a.m. He and his mother, ten-year-old Lily, will remain off exhibit for several weeks to allow them time to bond with one another. 

At birth, the pup weighed just over 25 pounds (11.3 kg), and staff estimate that he will triple or quadruple his weight in the next month. Because the mom’s milk is extremely rich, the pup will gain several pounds a day. He will nurse from Lily for about two to three weeks and then will be introduced to a fish diet.

Photo credit: Jim Schulz / Chicago Zoological Society

Grey Seal pups are born with long white fur called lanugo (pronounced la-noo-go), which is molted in two to four weeks and replaced with shorter, stiffer hair similar to that of adults. Although guests will most likely not be able to see the pup on exhibit before he molts, video of the pup can be seen on the monitor located in the Seven Seas Underwater Viewing gallery.

Brookfield Zoo is now home to six Grey Seals, the most in any North American institution accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. This birth, as well as the pup’s gender, is significant to the overall North American population, which consists of only five males and 17 females. Rita Stacey, curator of marine mammals for the Society, is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums studbook keeper for Grey Seals. In this role, Stacey documents the pedigree and entire demographic history of each individual in the Grey Seal population. These collective histories are known as the population's genetic and demographic identity and are invaluable tools that track and manage each individual cared for in North American institutions.

Grey Seals can be found abundantly in coastal waters and are divided into three separate populations: the Western North Atlantic, the Eastern North Atlantic, and the Baltic Sea.

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Squee! Spotter: NCcharmer

Five Chinese Big-headed Turtles have hatched at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Prospect Park Zoo in New York City. These turtles, hatched in November, are the first to be successfully bred at a zoo accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).  

Chinese Big-headed Turtles are native to China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. They can grow to be about seven inches in length. They have skulls of solid bone that is so large in proportion to their bodies that they cannot be withdrawn into the shell for protection.

The species is classified as Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. They are threatened by trade demand across its Asian range countries.

Photo credit: Wildlife Conservation Society / Julie Larsen Maher

See video of the little hatchlings:

In zoos, specific environmental and climatic conditions need to be manipulated in order to stimulate Chinese Big-headed Turtles to reproduce. Zoo experts were able to successfully recreate and document these conditions in the zoo’s propagation facilities, providing a road map for other organizations to successfully breed these turtles. 

Husbandry techniques were fine-tuned to promote breeding and successful incubation of the eggs. Before the breeding season, adults are isolated and placed in enclosures with environmental conditions that mimic the annual environmental cycles they would experience in the wild. These environmental cycles are important to the regular reproductive functions of the species. Room temperatures and lighting are adjusted depending on the time of year – colder and darker in the fall and winter, warmer and lighter in the spring and summer. During their “winter" the turtles hibernate. After awaking, males are introduced to females.

The Prospect Park Zoo is breeding this species as part of WCS’s global effort to save critically endangered turtles from extinction. The strategy draws on all of the resources and expertise across the institution – including its zoos and aquarium, Wildlife and Zoological Health Programs, and Global Conservation Programs – to take direct responsibility for the continued survival of some of the world’s most endangered tortoises and freshwater turtles.

“The success we are seeing at this point in our turtle propagation work is encouraging,” says Jim Breheny, WCS executive vice president of zoos and aquarium and Bronx Zoo director. “Our work on breeding endangered turtles utilizes the expertise found throughout the entire WCS organization as well as various partner organizations with whom we work.”

Learn more about turtle conservation after the fold!

WCS now has 15 Chinese Big-headed Turtles at the Bronx and Prospect Park Zoos –the largest collection of the species in any AZA-accredited zoo. The hatchlings and most adults are housed in off-exhibit areas of the zoos, but one adult female is on exhibit at the Animals in Our Lives building at the Prospect Park Zoo.

There are approximately 330 species of freshwater turtles and tortoises, half of which are threatened with extinction due to illegal trade and habitat loss. WCS strives to alleviate threats to highly endangered turtles around the world by working closely with relevant governments to react rapidly in nations that are centers of turtle diversity, including the Big-headed Turtle’s native range.

Says Denise McClean, director of the WCS Prospect Park Zoo, “With so many of the world’s freshwater turtles and tortoises facing extinction, these hatchlings represent significant progress for the conservation of the species. The science could help expand breeding programs to other facilities and can be useful to conservation work in the field.”

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