Corona Daily 073: Zoo Baby Boom

This pandemic has brought some delightful news from all around the world - animals are producing far more babies than usual. Several animals in zoos gave birth for the first time.

Tourism is a key income source for Sri Lanka. Its zoos have been shut since March 2020. For the first time, the Sri Lanka Zoo witnessed the births of a black swan, a white peacock and a Nilgai, Asia’s largest antelope. In addition, an Arabian oryx, black duck, scimitar-horned oryx, a zebra, and three lion cubs were born. In the absence of visiting crowds, animals moved around more freely and successfully consorted with mates.

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In the San Antonio Zoo in Texas, the arrival of a baby bird called Micronesian Kingfisher was a surprise. It was thought to be extinct. Two near-extinct aquatic species of pupfish gave birth in the zoo’s aquarium. The last sighting of a La Palma pupfish in the wild was in 1994, and that of the Charco Palma pupfish in 1995.

Seven Tasmanian Devils were born in Australia for the first time after 3000 years (imported earlier). They are the world’s largest carnivorous marsupials. As native predators, they are capable of controlling the populations of feral cats and foxes.

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Kenya has had an elephant baby boom. A record breaking 248 baby elephants were born in Amboseli national park alone. The lockdowns were not responsible for the conception, since elephants are pregnant for about two years. In a drought, females stop their cycles. Kenya had a terrible drought in 2017, and in 2018, the elephants started mating. The pandemic helped, because poaching and killing of animals stopped.

Conservationists don’t name the elephants till they are four years old, because of high infant mortality. Out of the 248 babies born, 240 have survived. Twins are rare, because the mother struggles to give milk to two hungry babies. In the pandemic baby boom, two pairs of twins have survived beyond six months, the critical mark.

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Animals in Palestine are perhaps safer than people. At a Palestinian zoo, peacocks, ostriches and baboons joined a baby boom that produced three times more than the usual animals. With people visiting the zoo daily, in normal years an ostrich laying eggs could rarely incubate them properly. This year, she produced eleven eggs, and with no people around, was able to build a nice nest.

In Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk zoo, the rare births included Egyptian goslings, reindeer calves, llama crias and a brown weeper capuchin monkey. Only the zoo’s herd of camels seems to be missing visitors. In a confused state, they followed every zoo employee walking past their enclosure.

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Spring is usually the best season for fertility in the animal kingdom. More food is available. With more rainfall, more sunlight and longer days the animal parents in the wild have more time to hunt and nurse their babies. Warm weather helps to protect the babies.

Zoos in North America usually celebrate zoo babies’ month in May. Now all zoos are expecting a large second wave of births.

As compared to humans, the pandemic had a reverse effect on animals. Instead of distancing, they came closer. Giant pandas, generally lacking the drive and skill, managed to mate and produce babies in America and Hong Kong. At the Houston zoo, three weeks is all it took for one male bongo to impregnate three females.

Houston zoo, not wanting more mouths in the pandemic, separated a pair of hedgehog tenrecs. The couple was separated for 89 days. The zoo specialists thought 42 to 49 days was the gestation period. To their shock, after 89 days, the female gave birth to three babies.

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What the pandemic has made obvious is that animals need privacy just like we do. It is known that cheetahs, white rhinos, Yangtze turtles, whooping cranes and giant pandas have great difficulties conceiving in captivity. Shutting down zoos for visitors and jungles for poachers has worked wonders for the animal kingdom.

It may be better to free endangered and near-extinct species from zoos. Perhaps in the wild, they can more easily be fruitful and multiply.

Ravi