Baby boom at Al Ain Zoo

AL AIN: Al Ain Zoo and Wildlife Park has reported a “baby boom” with 72 antelopes and gazelles born until March, said a park official. This is 61 per cent higher than the monthly average births in 2012, when a total of 179 antelopes were born at the zoo. Since January this year, 124 animals were born within the facility (five primates, 72 antelopes, nine birds, and 37 other species. A total of 239 births were recorded in 2012 at the zoo, including a zebra and a giraffe.

“We usually prefer no interference with newborns during the first week,” said Dr Arshad Toosy, manager for vet operations at the zoo, which leads the world in the conservation of the endangered Arabian sand gazelles (locally called “dhabi”). “When the baby is strong enough, and knows how to get its mother’s milk, our animal keepers usually capture the animals to ear-tag them for record-keeping.”

The 400-hectare park is home to about 4,300 animals and runs various conservation and breeding programmes with an emphasis on desert antelopes, gazelles and desert carnivores (such as the African lion, Arabian leopard, sand cat, cheetah and African wild dog).

Last year, the zoo also saw the birth of a southern-white rhinoceros, the world’s second-largest animal after the elephant.

Among the carnivores, three jackals and two spotted hyenas were also born in captivity in 2012, according to the zoo registry.

“Some of the births do take place in the public side of the zoo,” said Mayyas Al Qarqaz, head of its animal collection department. “This includes the mixed Arabian, Sahara, Chital and mixed African exhibits. The majority of births take place in the back-of-house facilities.”

Al Ain Zoo specialists are also involved in in-vitro fertilisation of sand cats, making it the largest zoological institution in the world with the largest sand cat population.

The zoo is also involved in conservation research and the reintroduction of threatened species to their wild habitats.

Al Ain Zoo has formed partnerships with the world’s leading zoos, conservation agencies and associations, including the World Conservation Union and Species Survival Commission, Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi, San Diego Zoo, Edinburgh Zoo, the Northern Rangelands Trust of Kenya and the Sahara Conservation Fund.

The zoo is currently transforming the area around the core zoo into a new institution dedicated to exhibiting and conserving desert wildlife.