Ekaterinburg Zoo Ekaterinburg zoo

Elephas Maximus

Elephas Maximus

Well-Known Member
Well, this topic should have started with a zoo review, but I'm too lazy :D
So here's Crowned crane chick hatched February 1st. Hand-raised of course.
A noticeable achievement, since non-domesticated birds do not breed at our zoo (except cattle egrets and one occasional violet touraco)
IMGP0697.JPG
 
Today 1.1 aardvarks were born by the same female with 5-hour interval, they're normal-sized and doing well.
I bet nobody is impressed - you all abroad breed aardvarks like rabbits...
but we in Russia are proud of this small achievement.
 
Elephas Maximus said:
Today 1.1 aardvarks were born by the same female with 5-hour interval, they're normal-sized and doing well.
I bet nobody is impressed - you all abroad breed aardvarks like rabbits...
but we in Russia are proud of this small achievement.
Click to expand...

Quite a big achievement I would say, breeding Aardvarks is quite challenging. To be said the birth is not the hardest part keeping the young alive is though.
 
Not too many zoos breed aardvark, and like DDCorvus said, only a handfull keep the youngsters alive. The numbers have gone up a little after a few more pairs where imported a few years ago.

Afaik twins are rare and keeping twins alive is even rarer. Good luck and good news, love aardvarks!
 
And add the fact that our zoo has the smallest aardvark exhibit in the world (16 sqm for group and 8 sqm for separation of breeding female).
 
If the aardvark twins survive, it would only be the second time worldwide that both young are raised, only in Burgers Zoo (2000/1) was this achieved, other twin births (2x Cincinatti & 1x Burgers Zoo) were less successful.
 
I hope it's Asian... the female's origin or ancestry is most likely from local population, and there are no European baders at Urals.
 
2 female Yellow mongoose arrived from Perm zoo, to accompany our old pair in their ''spacious" 1,5 sqm enclosure.
Aadrvarks gained about 2 kilos each.
Marmoset & bushbaby exhibits were renovated and recently opened for view.
 
Good to hear the Aardvarks are doing well ! Is there a lack of space at Ekaterinburg or is there and other reason why some of the animals kept in such small enclosures ( Yellow mongoose 1.5 sqm, Aardvark 16 and 8 sqm ) ?
 
vogelcommando said:
Good to hear the Aardvarks are doing well ! Is there a lack of space at Ekaterinburg or is there and other reason why some of the animals kept in such small enclosures ( Yellow mongoose 1.5 sqm, Aardvark 16 and 8 sqm ) ?
Click to expand...
The lack of space obviously (total zoo space is 2,5 hectares).
Most of indoor enclosures are impossible to expand since they're formed by solid walls, and current buildings are 20 years old.
In the zoo's history there were several failed attempts to find a new territory.
New zoo could be built if our city won Expo 2020, naturally it didn't happen (but it could happen if damn Dubai was not in the list!!!
 
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vogelcommando said:
Article about the Aardvark twins :
Aardvark Twins Born In Russian Zoo - Around the World News - Austrian Times Online News - English Newspaper
Click to expand...
Naturally, the translators made an error - the female's proper name is Baga, and in Russian grammar there are many cases according to which the noun's ending changes (unlike in English)

The calves & mother are already 2 weeks on exhibit, but visitors doesn't seem to like 'mutant kangaroo-pigs' much and spend less than a minute to view the unique animals, usually telling their children something like 'look, a baby is sucking milk from a tittie' in a silly tone.
 
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