Northern fur seal and earless monitor lizards: Which animals had offspring at the Zoo this year

In 2018, over 800 young were born at the Moscow Zoo. Now the Zoo population counts over 1,200 species and 10,500 animals. The birds and mammals saw the biggest increase (birds had 341 nestlings and mammals 247 young). Reptiles had 68 young and fish and amphibians over 50.

“We are happy that this year so many inhabitants of the Zoo had offspring and new animals joined the collection.  It is very important for Muscovites and tourists to have an opportunity to admire the variety of animal life in the world and see it at its best. This is the only way for us to instil a caring attitude towards nature and make people feel responsible for the future of every species,” said General Director of the Moscow Zoo Svetlana Akulova.

She said that the rise in births testifies that the animals are kept in good conditions, get the right care and balanced feeding.

Many animals at the Zoo had young this year, including rare species like the Southern ground hornbill, the Diana monkey and the Sichuan takin. An important achievement for the Zoo staff was to get the young of the earless monitor lizard, a very rare reptile that had never bred in captivity. This experience can be used by other zoos in future.

Japanese macaques, musk oxen, grey crowned cranes, Western lowland gorillas, Eurasian lynxes and alpacas all had young at the Zoo this year. A great event was the birth of a northern fur seal cub, which happened for the first time in 20 years.

In addition, Kirk’s dik-diks had three young, Eurasian beavers had four, Stanley cranes one, Indian peafowls seven, brown greater galagos and Bengal slow loris two each, and Chakoan maras had one.

East Caucasian turs broke all records. They had nine calves during the spring and summer period.  Flamingos had 11 nestlings and black swans had 14. Guinea turacos produced offspring for the first time in the Zoo history.

Gracile capuchin monkeys and Bornean orangutans also had one infant each.

The Rare Animal Species Reproduction Centre near Volokolamsk also had a lot of young rare and endangered animal species. A great event was the birth of Far Eastern leopard Nikolai’s cubs. When Nikolai was a cub himself, he was attacked by poachers but was saved. After long preparations he was coupled with a female leopard on recommendations from a coordinator of the European programme of preserving this species in captivity. These cubs became the first litter at the Zoo in 60 years from a leopard who had lived in the wild.

Svetlana Akulova said that the high birth rate at the Zoo will not be the only reason why the outgoing year will stay in their memory.  The Zoo managed to get many other rare species from other Russian and foreign zoos. Now the zoo has a rare secretary bird again for the first time in 30 years. The male secretary bird, which arrived from a French ornithological park, already feels at home in its enclosure in the Bird House and is used to the visitors’ attention. Also the bird collection can now boast of craxes and grey-winged trumpeters, rare Latin American birds.

In addition, the Zoo now has a Far Eastern forest cat for the first time in over 50 years. The six-month-old female is busy exploring her enclosure at the Animals of Russia exhibition. In spite of the wild cat’s secretive nature, visitors can admire it practically every day during special public feedings at 2 pm from Tuesday till Friday.

The animal and bird breeding period usually lasts for seven months, from March until October. The young are born only rarely at the end of autumn or in winter. On average, 600-700 young are born at the Moscow Zoo a year. For example, last year the Zoo’s inhabitants had 600 young.

In 2014, the Zoo had 758 young, in 2015, 363 and in 2016, 1,157 young were born, which was a real baby boom. 

The Moscow Zoo has prepared a special entertainment programme for visitors for the winter holiday season and on New Year’s Eve all visitors will get a 40 percent admittance discount. See link for more details.