Baby Animals Born in 2011 (PHOTOS and VIDEOS)
Every year zoos around the world welcome new life, and The Christian Post has compiled twelve babies born to twelve different zoos during every month of 2011.
On Jan. 26 this year, the San Diego Zoo welcomed a baby hippopotamus that was born before the eyes of over 100 zoo guests.
Hippos, or “river horse” in Greek, are the third largest land mammals. While the animals are mostly solitary on land, much of their time is spent staying cool in water or mud. Both reproduction and birth occurs while the animals are submerged in water. They are mostly herbivorous, yet are often regarded as the most dangerous animals in Africa and are known for being aggressive.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Watch the baby hippo’s birth in January here.
On Feb. 25, the Beauval Zoo in central France saw the birth of a koala joey named Eora. The small marsupial, which was only two centimeters long at birth, spent six to eight months inside her mother’s pouch. Other marsupials include kangaroos, which see babies develop in the pouch for about 235 days.
In the early 20th century the species was hunted for its fur almost to extinction. Koalas slightly resemble the wombat, and are native to New South Wales and Queensland.
A Wattled Crane chick hatched at the Smithsonian National Zoo on March 20 this year. The bird will grow to be up to 175 centimeters tall, and the species is the largest crane in Africa and the second tallest species of crane, after the Saurus Crane.
Adult wattled cranes have ash gray wings and back, while the feathered portion of the head is dark gray above the eyes and on the crown but is otherwise white. The wattles are also white and hang down from the upper throat.
On April 10, a male aardvark was born at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Fla. There are fewer than a dozen aardvark births per year, and only 25 aardvarks in North American zoos, making the animal very special.
Aardvarks are native to Africa and are often called “antbear” or “anteaters” because of their burrowing habits, and feeds almost exclusively on ants and termites. Their appearance slightly resembles that of a pig and the stout animals have small, tubular mouths. Aardvarks can live up to 24 years in captivity.
In early May, the Santa Ana Zoo in Prentice Park welcomed twin golden lion tamarins. The rare monkeys are native to the Atlantic coast of Brazil and weigh less than one pound as adults, making the babies tip the scale at about one-eighth of a pound.
A picture for the newborns at Prentice Park was unavailable. Watch a video of golden lion tamarins from Philadelphia here.
In June, the Philadelphia Zoo welcomed two snow leopard cubs. Watch the video captured during the event here.
Native to South and Central Asia’s cold mountain ranges, snow leopards are moderately large cats with long thick fur smoky gray, yellowish, and tan colored fur with white under parts. The mostly solitary cats can kill animals three times their size in the wild, but mostly eat smaller prey such as birds and rabbits in addition to some vegetation.
In July, the first blue spotted stingray was born to the Living Coasts Aquarium in the U.K., marking only the second birth of the venomous fish to be born in the country. The fish has a disk width of around 26 inches and is light green with blue spots.
First discovered in Indonesia, the stingray can be found in waters off the coasts of Australia, Kenya, Madagascar, and many countries in Africa.
Watch the video of the stingray here.
In August, the Mata Ciliar Association in Brazil announced the arrival of an oncilla cub after rescuing the animal near a controlled fire area. The cub’s mother most likely survived the fire, but did not return for the cub, and staff members hand-raised the animal.
Also known as the little spotted cat, Tigrillo, or tiger cat, the animal is native to tropical rainforests of Central and South America. Oncilla are related to the ocelot and the margay and hunt rodents and birds.
In September at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. a rare Persian onager foal was born. Resembling a donkey, the onager is only one of 26 that live in captivity in the U.S. In the wild, onager foals have a high mortality rate – 50 percent die.
The endangered status is not a result of the animal’s versatility though, as onagers are extremely fast and can stand inhospitable deserts where temperatures span 120 degrees Fahrenheit to below freezing.
Born in October on Halloween at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Texas, two Sumatran tiger cubs’ birth was debuted on video, which can be seen here.
Critically endangered in 2008, Sumatran tigers are the smallest of the tiger species as compared to the Siberian which is the largest. The animals weigh from 200-265 pounds and have webbed toes, permitting fast swimming.
On Nov. 29, the San Diego Zoo welcomed a single capybara baby weighing three pounds. The grass-eating animal’s name means “master of the grass,” and its scientific name, “Hydrochoerus,” means “water hog.” The largest living rodents in the world, capybara are related to chinchillas and guinea pigs and are native to South America.
The Christian Post is awaiting the December arrival of a newborn animal to round out 2011’s births.
