Some excellent news to start 2014 with Orangutan, Chinta gave birth to a healthy baby on 22nd December. The 2nd birth in less than 12 months at Paignton New baby orang-utan born at Paignton Zoo | Torquay Herald Express
I can clearly remember all four great grandparents of this new baby at London Zoo, which rather dates me... They were Anak(m) x Bulu(f) = Kadim(m) & Saleh(m)x Kate(f) = Senja. Grandparents; Kadim(m) x Senja(f) = Chinta(f) x Demo(m) = new baby.
Visited today. I believe Chinta was out with her baby today in the show pen. I only had a brief look and sure it was her (I could be wrong, but sure it was her) she had it wrapped up in straw in her arms. Not very busy, news probably hasn't spread yet though. New female Maned Wolf called Mila?(Spelling!) Pronounced Mill-ah who is 12months old. Shes been introduced to 12 year Old male Smolis in the main enclosure. The keeper says they have shown little interest in each other, but are tolerating being in the same enclosure. Smolis is still in good health according to the keeper but when he passes they will try to get a young male to place with Mila - Potentionally more Maned Wolf pups in the future? Ground work still going on where the old winter quarters/small mammal house/meerkat/ porcupine enclosures were. Anyone knows what they plan to build there? Emu and Kangaroo adoption board still out of order...
Yes, that was Chinta. She went back on show yesterday. I heard something about that area being turned into a picnic area for the time being. It was/is the planned site for a new baboon enclosure.
Great news to start the year - even though the baby is technically a 2013 baby Two births in 12 months is good going and no doubt there will be plenty of visitors crowding to see the little one once news spreads!
The male Demo has been mating the females very regularly ever since his arrival. But for some reason they didn't become pregnant until much more recently though. It might have been a lack of his fertility that was the problem. Chinta is already 24, quite old for a primaparous mother really.
@Pertinax, could it be the case that male orangs really need to be quite a bit older to become successful breeding males? Or do precocious males exist at all? Is there any discernable variance in and/or pattern among breeding success among the male in mature age classes?
Paignton's only other Orang birth before these two, was 'Gambira' (the third female currently at the Zoo) who was born about 16(?) years ago to the old female 'Bulu' and fathered by her own son 'Nakal' (who came with her from ZSL) At the time he was only about six years old! Obviously they weren't expecting that.... There are plenty of examples of young male Orangutans in the 6-8 age range fathering infants. I'd be inclined to say its normal for them to be fully fertile by then, long before maturity, which is why the fact Demo took so long to successfully father offspring is a bit of a mystery.
Oh.They already have that lawn between animal encounters & Monkey heights just a few steps away. I was hoping they'd build new exhibits, even if it was for the Meerkats & Porcupine who have now moved to outside the nocturnal house. One thing about the move though I've noticed is the crested Porcupine is a lot more active in it's 'new' location. In it's old enclosure it'd just stay in it's house all day, at least everytime I'd been there. Now outside the nocturnal house I've seen it out and about every time I've visited.
Possibly the increased activity is a result of stimulation from being moved to a different enclosure. It may revert to its previous behaviour given time.
Giraffe birth Sangha gave birth today, apparently with an audience - there are several photos of the event on Facebook.
Giraffe birth So far, so good, I would say judging by these photos: https://www.facebook.com/paigntonzoo/photos
Thank you for the link to photos Lucky people who were there and witnessed it i just hope they all respected what was happening and were quiet etc. Always lovely to hear of a new baby
Giraffes I visited the giraffe house today. Male, Yoda, was separated and Sangha was with the calves and Janika, the other adult female. Her new calf is tiny (of course!) and alert. Sangha was wandering about and every time she passed it she licked and nuzzled it. A very encouraging sight after the last 4 births there
That's brilliant to hear. Always lovely to hear of a new giraffe and just wish i was a lot closer to Paignton so i could visit. Very encouraging to hear that Sangha seems to be attentive to the calf I keep my fingers crossed that it continues and the calf thrives.
