Zoo Babies

September 12th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

Saturday 13 September

A heart-warming look at pregnancy, birth and infancy at Auckland Zoo, through the eyes of the animals and their keepers.

The babies are very cute, but there are also some serious messages of conservation behind these little furry faces.

Background
Like zoos around the world, Auckland Zoo is focused on saving endangered species with breeding programmes, which preserve a healthy genetic diversity.

Zoo visitors just love to see baby animals. There’s nothing cuter than baby monkeys or lions and it’s easy to spend hours just watching their antics.

What most people don’t realise is that the babies haven’t just happened. Animal births are planned, sometimes years in advance.

There are a number of deciding factors about which animals are to breed. How old they are, what is their genetic background, has their family bred before, is there an over representation of this animals bloodline in the region, is there a need for more of this species?

These are just some of the questions: the decisions are not made solely by the zoo.

Endangered or threatened animals have a ‘caretaker’ called a Studbook Keeper. These people are usually zoo keepers who have volunteered for the role.

They use a computer programme, which has a database containing every detail of the species they manage.

This programme helps the keeper in deciding which animals should or shouldn’t breed and which animals need to move to another zoo to pair up with an animal of another bloodline.