Sloth has been born at Schonbrunn : April 25, 2013 Baby Sloth Clings to Mom at Zoo Vienna Vienna_Sloth_1 On April 16th, Zoo Vienna welcomed a new member to their zoo in the form of a baby Two-Toed Sloth. Since then, the baby has been hitching a ride on its mother, where it will spend the next six months of its life. "Newborn Sloths use their mother for the first half year as a hammock and cling to her belly fur and cuddle," explained zoo Director Dagmar Schratter. This is already fourth baby for parents Alberta and Einstein in the six years they have lived at Zoo Vienna. "Alberta is already an experienced mother. She nurses her baby, grooms it and shows him how to nibble lettuce leaves," Schratter said. Visitors can try to catch a view of the baby, whose sex has yet to be determined, clinging to its mother's belly in the zoo's aviary. Vienna_Sloth_2 Vienna_Sloth_3 Photo Credits: Norbert Potensky / Zoo Vienna Two-Toed Sloths, native to the rainforests of South America, spend their lives in the trees crawling through the canopies clinging upside down to branches. They have specially adapted long curved claws to help assist them in this lifestyle. Interestingly, sloths have also adapted to have their spinal cord run not down their back, but down their belly instead to help live this upside down life. Sloths generally move very slowly, simply because they don't have to move any quicker. With a fantastically camouflaged coat there is little worry about predation and sloths can slowly make their way through the canopy searching for their diet of fruits, leaves and buds. Source : Zooborns
Article about Arctic wolf-young at Schonbrunn : Arctic Wolf Cubs Can Howl With The Best of Them - ZooBorns
Having visited twice in the last week, I can confirm the giraffe calf appeared at some point between late afternoon on the 14th (when I saw all the adults and no calf inside the house) and opening time on the 16th (when there was somewhat surprisingly an extra, small giraffe present!).
Another successful Giant Panda birth for Vienna - Single cub born yesterday and doing well so far (Natural mating again)
Baby sea lion "Alada" was put to sleep early August 2013 (congenital heart defect). Now there are only three sea lions left, male "Commandante", "Kelo" (Alada's mum) and one year old baby girl "Lunita" (she was hand reared, her mommie died last year, congenital heart defect). A cute little girl porcupette was born on Aug 4, 2013 to first time mum "Ursi" and a king penguin chick hatched in July 2013., the first chick after six years.
African elephant Tonga gave birth to a cute little baby girl on September 4, 2013. It is the first ele-baby birth after AI with frozen sperm of a bull living in the wild.
Bonita and Sir William went back to Zoo Salzburg, where their new Jaguar House was opened on September 17, 2013.
The little elephant girl, born September 4, 2013, was named Iqhwa. The name means "ice", it's the winner of the internet voting with 50,6%.
The zoo announced last week, that the giant panda cub was named Fu Bao (= Happy leopard) by his keepers. Capybara Nancy, a first time mum, gave birth to three cute pups on Nov 29, 2013. Nancy, the babies and also daddy Sam are doing fine.
