…if you ever happen to be at the river hippo exhibit at the Toronto Zoo and Alison is there with her girls, it’s virtually impossible not to fall in love with them all. The affection they feel for each other is absolutely palpable…
I can’t remember another time when they were all relaxing this much as they were on this day in April 2017. The shot I chose for June’s calendar photo was just a small part of a much bigger “nap fest”, part of which I have shown in this photo, at left. I decided to just focus on the one meerkat as I really felt it was a better shot for a full-page photo; I don’t think the group picture would really carry much weight if viewed from, say, a table halfway across the kitchen. But I’ll post several of the other shots from that day here.
From the very beginning, Kiko hit it off with Mstari (and Twiga) which is terrific news, because their genes are very important to the North American breeding program (known as the SSP: Species Survival Plan). Any offspring they produce will be very important to the future success of the Masai species in AZA-accredited Zoos.
The success of the Toronto Zoo’s breeding program for these adorable but endangered little birds is fantastic and speaks volumes for the incredible work the Keepers do there. As I have mentioned before – and which any of you who have known me longer than just a couple of years already knew – penguins have been my favourite creatures for most of my life and watching the interactions between all of the Keepers who work with them and the tiny denizens of the Zoo’s penguin exhibit is always heart-warming, to say the least.
In the early days of Nneka’s life Nassir was quite a handful. Used to being the sole light in his mama’s eyes – and only recently weaned himself – this was quite a normal push-back.
Born overnight on the 26th and 27th of September, 2015 to Makali and Fintan were four white lion cubs – all boys, as it turned out later to some dismay.
The Grumpy Penguin 