There are couple of things that set sheep apart from goats, but an easy one to spot is whether their tails stand up or hang down (check out the photo above to see which applies to sheep). But something they have in common are amazing, rectangular pupils.
Lenny and his partner Holly are getting up there in years, but still going strong. Lenny was born on December 2, 1975 while Holly’s birthdate is estimated as sometime in 1972 (she was wild-captured).
Makepeace was born (hatched) on June 13, 1986, which makes him well over 33 years old! This site lists their life expectancy at 12-14 years in the wild and, for some inexplicable reason, shorter in captivity; I don’t imagine that second part to be true, but still: for Makepeace to outlive his normal life expectancy by a factor of nearly 2.5 is absolutely incredible.
If you get a chance to visit the Zoo this winter, try to get up and see this little scamp while she is still so very wee. I mean, she’ll never exactly be huge (they are, after all, “pygmy” hippos), but nevertheless she’s absolutely adorable right now and you should try not to miss her!
The drive-through portion of Parc Safari features only herbivores and no meat-eaters of any kind. This made the experience rather like being on a farm, or perhaps an exotic petting zoo.
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.
I chose the dove chick for the March animal in the Baby Boom calendar for a couple of reasons: a) because the awkward, gangly, relative “unattractiveness” of this tiny creature would be in stark contrast to the “squee-inducing” images that surrounded it; and 2) because it was born in March, and I truthfully had no other options that I was 100% sure of.
I love heading up to see my sweet Kanzi whenever I can, or at least check to see if she’s on display. No matter what the weather, no matter how long it’s been between visits, no matter how she’s feeling – she always comes straight over to me once she knows I’m there.
The Grumpy Penguin 