New Births at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park

Love is in the air, especially at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park.

Apparently there are quite a few babies to brag about at the world renowned venue this week – in fact more than 100 exotic animals have been born over the past few months. And luckily for us observers, they are playing, hopping and having fun in their field exhibits so come and take a gander.

The Zoo invites you to fawn all over these cute offspring, including 14 more goats, sheep and antelope that are quickly growing up in the nursery. Guests can watch bottle feedings and see the young animals at play. Be on the look out for those practicing their leaps and head-butting like the fuzzy Turkomen Markhors, striped Nyalas and spotted East African Sitatungas.

“While we prefer that our baby animals are raised by their mothers in our wide-open field exhibits at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, sometimes that isn’t possible due to medical problems or a mother’s inexperience,” said Kevin Yates, a senior keeper. “In those cases, we raise them in our nursery where guests can watch them grow up.

“We have babies on view here in the nursery almost year-round; some days it is Cheetahs and Rhinos and on others, like today, it is leaping goats and antelope.”

The 1,800-acre San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park is operated by the not-for-profit San Diego Zoo and includes a 900-acre native species reserve. The San Diego Zoo focuses on the conservation of endangered species and their habitats, engages in conservation and research work around the globe, educates millions of individuals a year about wildlife, and maintains accredited horticultural, animal, library and photo collections. The Zoo also manages the San Diego Zoo’s Beckman Center for Conservation Research. The important conservation and science work of these entities is supported in part by The Foundation of the Zoological Society of San Diego.

*Photos from Vrysxy via Wikimedia and Marcin Wichary via Flickr