Last month Altina Wild Life Park was treated to the arrival of three litters of meerkats and the zoo’s first ever female zebra foal.
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Altogether 78 animals have been born at the park in 2018, with senior animal keeper Rebecca Surian suspecting that there is ‘something in the water’ at Darlington Point this year that has been aiding the major baby boom for the zoo.
“It’s the first time that we have had a female zebra foal, it’s the second zebra foal that we have had at Altina and this particular girl was a first time mother,” Mrs Surian said.
“With the meerkats, we have had pups before but this is the first time we have had three litters of meerkats in the same season.
“Altogether there are 10 pups, two litters of four and one litter of two, the three mums had pups within a month of each other, all of them (would give) birth overnight and in the morning and the pups were there waiting for us.”
Mrs Surian said the birth of Fina the girl baby zebra was a relatively easy affair for her mum Askari, with only a few hours of labour being needed to bring out the bundle of stripes.
“Fina is purely on mum at the moment and loving her milk it’s an open bar,” Mrs Surian said.
“She is running around her grassy green enclosure but she won’t eat grass until she is about three to four months.
Mrs Surian said the zoo’s biggest concern is keeping an eye on mum and making sure that she keeps her milk supply up.
“We can't do much for the zebra foal that is mum’s job, so we have to be keeping mum healthy,” Mrs Surian said.
“We’re quite a hands-off zoo, we try to let mum do her job with little stripes, we hand feed mum some times, but we want Fina to come to us when she is ready.”
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Compared to the slightly timid Fina, Mrs Surian said the Meerkat babies have been anything but shy.
“The four eldest meerkats are already starting to come out and take food from the keepers and any visitors that come in, because they are so much more curious than a zebra they are willing to come up and say hi earlier in life,” Mrs Surian said.
“With meerkats they start eating solid food much quicker, around about the three weeks age.
“We need to make sure that the meerkats get high nutrition food from the dot, and that the others don't steal their food otherwise they won't develop into a full sized meerkat and could get stunted.”
Among the new arrivals at Altina this year there have been a number of babies from endangered species including six Scimitar Oryx calves, three Banteng calves, seven Maned Wolf pups, two Mongolian Wild Horse foals, and a Ring Tail Lemur baby.
There were also three critically endangered Addax Antelope calves.
Mrs Surian said the zoo is extremely proud to have helped contribute to the conservation of these endangered species.
“It really depends on the stud book keepers on whether they want to move those babies once they are grown,” Mrs Surian said.
“We get a recommendation from a stud book keeper and they make sure zoos don’t interbreed and they say weather the offspring can go to this particular zoo.
“Most animals have their own stud book keeper and they work Australasian wide and control the breeding of that particular species.
“Even though they are not our physical babies we get attached to every single animal, sometimes kids have to grow up and move out of home it's a sad part of life.”
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