Monkeys, piglets, zebras and more: Baby animals bring new opportunities to Brevard Zoo
Brevard Zoo has welcomed multiple baby animals this spring and summer, including spider monkeys, babirusa piglets, a King vulture, zebras and most recently, three impalas.
Apart from the zebra foals, born to first-time mothers Lauren on June 1 and Iggy on June 30, the baby animals were all born to experienced mothers. The animals are thriving so far, said Zach Marchetti, curator of donor engagement and animal experiences at the zoo.
However, each has come with unique challenges, ranging from a high risk of bird flu to fears of their mothers rejecting them.
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“Infant animal care is really interesting because it’s so different depending on the species,” Marchetti said. “With some species like the spider monkeys, if you don’t pay attention, you would never even know that those babies are there because they cling so tightly to Mom. But that doesn’t mean that its’ less work for the keepers — in a lot of ways, it’s almost more work because they have to pay such close attention to them.”
Born at 'the worst possible time'
The first baby to arrive, a king vulture chick, came at “the worst possible time,” Marchetti said. The chick hatched March 30, just a little over a month after Brevard Zoo implemented its "avian influenza plan" due to a rise in local bird flu cases.
This plan included closing free-flight walkthrough aviaries to the public, moving the most at-risk birds to indoor habitats, modifying the habitats of other birds to protect them from wild birds and requiring zoo staff to wear extra protective equipment while caring for the birds.
Initially, the plan for the unnamed vulture chick, whose sex has not been determined yet, was to incubate the egg, as the parents — Princess and Junior — had a former baby pass way during the hatching process, Marchetti said.
However, because of bird flu, zoo workers had to leave the egg with the parents, who remained in a modified version of their outdoor exhibit.
Though it was a tough time to have the baby, the parents have done a great job so far, Marchetti said.
"We had to protect them where they were, from bird flu, and really just stay completely hands-off with that entire process and trust that they were going to be able to do it," Marchetti said. "Having it happen at that time and being forced to kind of let them take the lead and trust that they were going to be able to do it, and having it end up working out was a pretty special opportunity."
The chick, who stands about as tall as its parents on its perch in the South American section of the zoo, is distinguishable by the fluffy white down feathers covering its body.
Finding their place in the family
Two new black-handed spider monkeys call the zoo home. The first, a female who has not been named, was born to 31-year-old Shelley on April 15 and stands out among the others with a birthmark on her face that resembles Batman's mask. The second, who does not have a name and whose sex is unknown, was born to 19-year-old Tika.
With baby spider monkeys, zoo keepers typically do not perform neonatal exams because of the risk of causing distress to the baby and mother, as well as the risk for the mother not accepting the baby back. Instead, they must keep a close eye on the babies and the mothers, being vigilant of any possible signs of abnormalities.
The mothers and their babies are part of a troop of largely juvenile monkeys, with three 2-year-olds and a 1-year-old hanging out in their enclosure. At their young age, both babies still cling to their mothers' backs or stomachs, though the older female has begun to venture on short walks around the enclosure.
Watching the other monkeys interact with the babies has been one of the most exciting parts of their care, Marchetti said. Matteo, a 2-year-old male spider monkey, was rescued from animal traffickers and initially showed fear toward other spider monkeys. He has shown gentle curiosity toward the infants.
"(He) was the first to really start to approach them and kind of put his hand gently on them and kind of introduce himself, so to speak," Marchetti said. "We did actually see him try and pick up one of the babies when it was really only a few weeks old and put it on his back so that he could carry it."
While the mother chased him off, Marchetti said Matteo's behavior didn't seem to be malicious.
"It really seemed like he was just trying to figure out sort of what his role with this baby was," he said, adding that prior to coming to the zoo, Matteo was orphaned and raised around humans instead of other monkeys. "Now that he's a little bit older and has joined this group, it is really interesting to see how he is navigating the addition of these two new infants into the troop."
A young hoofed horde
Seven hooved babies were born at the zoo between May and July. Mother Piggy and Father Meru, both 6-year-old babirusas — a species of Indonesia pigs — welcomed two twin piglets on May 18. The unnamed piglets, whose sexes are not known, live with Piggy in the Lands of Change: Australia and Beyond section of the zoo and have yet to meet Meru.
Piggy, who had a single piglet a few years ago, is doing a great job with the twins, Marchetti said. The two baby pigs like to spend their time chasing each other around their enclosure and trying to mimic their mother as she wallows in the mud.
The herd of impalas, who live on the Veldt — a large grassy area where the giraffes are kept — gave birth to three foals, with two males born June 25 and June 26, and a female born July 2. The babies do not have names yet but have been able to explore the bushes and fields of the Veldt with their herd.
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Because they don’t cling to their mothers like the spider monkeys do, zoo keepers could easily perform neonatal exams of the impalas by physically looking them over and drawing blood, Marchetti said. However, this doesn’t mitigate all concerns for their welfare. Because of their small size, zoo keepers must keep watch to make sure the giraffes don’t accidentally step on the baby impalas.
“Giraffes are these gigantic, amazing animals, but they’re also potentially really dangerous animals because they’re huge and they don’t know what they’re stepping on,” Marchetti said. “If we have giraffes that are overly curious about the babies, we’ll actually have to pull Mom and baby back for a little while, let the giraffe kind of settle back down and then bring them back out.”
Out of all the hooved animals, the zebras' arrivals came with the most anticipation and anxiety. The foals' births would be the first zebras to be born at the zoo, as well as the first offspring of mothers 11-year-old Iggy and 8-year-old Lauren.
Lauren's foal arrived first, but it was a long time coming. A Grévy's zebra’s average gestational period lasts 13 months, which gave the zoo plenty of time to look forward to the baby’s arrival. While they knew Lauren was expecting, they weren’t sure when she would give birth and spent about two months expecting the baby “any day,” Marchetti said.
The male foal, who weighed about 88 pounds at his birth, was born June 1. It was an exciting time, but there was still anxiety about what would happen in the coming days, especially because Lauren had been hand-raised as a foal.
“Hand-raised hoofstock have a sort of pension for not necessarily being great moms because often they are pulled for hand raising because their mom doesn’t take care of them,” Marchetti said.
Prior to the unnamed zebra foal’s arrival, cameras were installed in the enclosure keepers had set up for Lauren to stay in overnight as she prepared to give birth. Keepers were able to watch the foal’s arrival to see if Lauren would take care of the foal. At first, things seemed tenuous.
“We did see … less of an effort to help the baby break out of the amniotic sac and some of these things that a female zebra should be doing on her own out of instinct,” Marchetti said. “But immediately after that, once the baby was up and standing on its own, she let it nurse, and she has been a fantastic mom. That was a gigantic sigh of relief for us.”
The baby zebra also lives on the Veldt, though so far he has preferred to spend his time out of sight from visitors.
The zoo announced Friday that the second foal, an 84-pound male, had been born June 30.
Marchetti said they had fewer concerns surrounding Iggy's pregnancy and birth because her mother had raised her, but that "there are always concerns with first-time moms until we see that they have the instincts, are physically able to produce milk, etc."
Iggy and her foal are currently residing behind-the-scenes as they bond.
Finch Walker is a Breaking News Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @_finchwalker
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard Zoo welcomes zebras, monkeys, impalas and more baby animals
