Have you ever laid in bed at night wondering if somewhere else on Earth, a little Ring-tailed Lemur shares the exact same name as you? Or perhaps you have been searching for the perfect birthday gift for that hard to buy for Ring-tailed Lemur obsessive in your life. Well the search is over. Now you can bid on the opportunity to name not one, but both of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust's new little lemur twins! Born back in April, it's about time the little tykes got proper names. In addition to selecting the names, the winning bidder will also get to meet the lemurs as well as their keepers. All proceeds go to benefit Durrell's conservation work.
Photo credits - Images 1,2 & 4, Colm Farrington and images 3 and 5 Roberto Huzlebos
So what are you waiting for? Naming a lemur makes the perfect bar mitzvah gift. And how better to say "I love you" for a special anniversary than by naming a lemur after your wife? Join the bidding on eBay or read more about the contest on the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust site.
We're sorely tempted to name one "ZooBorns.com" but you gotta figure the little guy would be mercilessly teased in lemur elementary school.
Eel? Worm? Baby sea-monster? Actually Caecilians are amphibians like frogs and salamanders, but they lack any limbs and their eyes are tiny or non-existent. Most caecilians live underground in moist soil but Aquatic Caecilians, like these babies born at the Tennessee Aquarium July 18th, spend their lives wriggling within swamps, ponds and lakes.
While nearly all caecilians have lungs including Aquatic Caecilians, this species is also born with frilly, external gills, which can clearly be seen in the pictures below. The gills detach from the animal’s body shortly after getting its first breath of air from the surface. We recommend watching the video to see these bizarre critters in action.
Nebraska's Lincoln Children’s Zoo announced the hatching of two rare birds on July 15. These East African Crowned Cranes chicks were the first babies for the two parents, mother Naivasha (Na-Vash-A) and father Nukuru (Na-KU-Roo). They arrived at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo in the spring of 2007. You can tell the couple apart because Naivasha has additional red markings on her cheeks.
Two weeks ago we brought you the announcement of two new Snow Leopards born at the Cape May County Zoo in New Jersey. Today we share their video debut as they make one big noisily adorable spectacle of themselves.
A reminder - The zoo is holding a naming contest for the two cubs and you can submit your names for the cubs by sending an email to info@capemaycountyzoo.org (include your name, age, address, phone number, email and cub names). You may also submit your names in person at the zoo. To learn more about the contest and to see posted entries, visit the contest web page.
Over the last few weeks we brought you installments number one and number two of the Pallas' Cat kittens' progress at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation. Now seven weeks old, today we bring you the third installment in the trilogy in which the kittens venture out of their den in earnest and start exploring.
Just a decade ago, Washington's Western Pond Turtle population had shrunk to only about 150 individuals. Habitat destruction, pollution and disease all took their toll on the turtles but the invasive bullfrog proved to be their greatest enemy. Bullfrogs eat tiny turtle hatchlings and the dramatic increase in predation pushed the Western Pond Turtle to the brink. Luckily, the Oregon Zoo in partnership with other organizations created a head-start program, under which baby turtles are collected in the wild and raised in captivity until they are old enough to be released and fend for themselves. By raising them in warm light for eleven months, the turtle hatchlings skip hibernation and in that short time they actually grow the equivalent of three years in the wild!
Photo credit: Michael Durham, courtesy of the Oregon Zoo
Photo credit Brock Parker, courtesy of the Oregon Zoo
A Western Pond Turtle raised at the Oregon Zoo is released into the beautiful Washington wilderness. I'd like to be released there...
The Minnesota Zoo welcomed a healthy Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin calf on Saturday night to mom Allie. Weighing about 30lbs. and measuring around 2.5 feet long, the sex has yet to be determined. Happily swimming alongside mom, the baby dolphin is exhibiting all the right signs, although the first few weeks are always precarious for new dolphins. The calf's father, Semo, is 45 years old!
German photographer Tierkinder snapped some nice shots of Zoo Krefeld's 10-day-old Rhino baby. The calf is the third Rhino born at the zoo in four years, and the birth of a female (after two males in a row) represents great hope for the zoos breeding program. In the wild, adult Black Rhinos meet only during breeding season. Due to the potentially aggressive behavior of male rhinos, father Usoni and the other males are being kept apart from the bouncing bundle of joy for now.
The Chester Zoo in the U.K. has 3 little Visayan Warty Piglets to be proud of. Critically endangered in the wild, Visayan Warty Pigs are endemic to two islands in the central Philippines. Named for what scientists believe to be protective tissue covering three areas on its face, the species is maintained by only 6 zoos in Europe.
It’s been a busy week for Belfast Zoo with the birth of two tiny baby monkeys. The new Lion-tailed Macaque and Black and White Colobus Monkey are being looked after well by their mums and the other females in their groups. Sometimes the mothers will even pass the babies off to responsible aunts and older sisters while they go take a break.
On an unrelated-to-anything-scientific note, baby Colobus Monkeys look to us like a cross between a sheep, a bichon and a tiny old man...
