Some people look across the pens and paddocks, and see Zoo Atlanta. Others see a sprawling maternity ward.

The zoo this year has high hopes for its tigers, deer and warthogs, among other would-be parents. Zoo officials are confident that their attractions will do what nature intended, and the zoo will become home to cubs, fawns and whatever you call baby warthogs.

Johnny Crawford/AJC (ENLARGE)

Zoo Atlanta's Shirley the warthog has a boyfriend (Vern) who's got the hots for her.

Johnny Crawford/Staff (ENLARGE)

Zoo Atlanta officials hope that male Sumatran tiger Kavi (top) and female Chelsea produce offspring.

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That includes the couple from China, giant pandas Lun Lun and Yang Yang. Zoo officials hope their star visitors might create another tiny miracle this year, just as they did in 2006.

The zoo's natal wish list also includes lions, black rhinos, yellow-backed duikers (an African deer), and kangaroos. They've already seen a joey — that's a baby kangaroo — wiggling around in his mama's pouch.

Zoo employees are watching an array of birds, too. They don't want to count their white-headed buffalo weavers before they hatch, but the breeding season is imminent. Some baby flamingoes and cockatoos would create a flap.

Rebecca Snyder, the zoo's curator of giant panda research and management, and Maria Crane, the zoo's vice president of veterinary sciences, recently drew up a list of animals that could breed this year.

African lions

Kiki is 3, lissome and lovely. Kamal, his sun-streaked mane golden as a spring sun, is a year older. "We're seeing some sexual behavior in them," said Snyder.

If they don't see enough on Kamal's part, the zoo has Farasi, roaring on the sidelines. He's 17, knows what to do. "Kiki's been showing some interest in him," Snyder said.

Sumatran tigers

Chelsea and Kavi are stunningly beautiful, with bold black stripes against an orange hide. They're also young, and represent a species in peril in the wild. Zoo workers have kept them apart, letting each scope the other out, but plan to put them together soon.

They're hoping Kavi will be, well... a tiger. You know what that means.

Warthogs

Vern and Shirley are long in the snout, short on looks. But they seem to have the hots for each other, homeliness notwithstanding. Crane thinks they might bring forth a few little warthogs — warthoglets? — of their own.

Black and white ruffed lemurs

With their shock of white and black fur and bug eyes, lemurs Neva and Ian resemble stunned skunks. If they are stunned, it's apparently with each other. "We've seen sexual activity," said Crane.

Black rhinos

Rosie and Boma — now this is heavy. When the horned animals get amorous, said Crane, you need to stand back — or, better yet, run. "It [mating behavior] can get very aggressive." The rhinos have been at the zoo for more than a decade, and have yet to deliver. "We're still hopeful," she said.

(Note: The rhinos are in an enclosure. You don't really have to run.)

Yellow-backed duikers

Duikers (pronounced DIKE-ers) Lacey and Dasher are sort of fat-looking deer with toothpick legs and icepick horns. They are monogamous, sticking with the same mate for life. A good example, yes?

Birds

When spring wings back to Atlanta, look for some feathered newcomers to join the zoo's flocks. The Chilean flamingoes, violaceous turacos, white-headed buffalo weavers, gold-breasted starlings, superb starlings and Major Mitchell's cockatoos are likely to hatch some surprises.

Others in the menagerie

• The zoo also is keeping an eye on a female kangaroo Uluru, who has a little hopper jumping about in her pouch. A sharp-eyed employee discerned the infant two months ago, and zoo officials expect the joey to slide its little nose out and sniff the air sometime this spring. The dad is a springy fellow named Charlie.

• Don't forget Dottie the elephant. She is pregnant — a dauntless crew of specialists artificially inseminated her last year — and is doing great, said Snyder. But don't go buying cigars just yet: An elephant's gestation period lasts nearly two years. Baby elephant won't be here until spring 2009.

• And let's not forget the pandas. The zoo is hoping Lun Lun might deliver another cub late this summer, just as she did in 2006 with the birth of Mei Lan.

Zoo officials also are wishing that Yang Yang will be a stand-up kind of panda and do the hard work for them. Two years ago, the amiable bruin was a sexual dud. A crew of scientists inseminated Lun Lun.

This year? Yang Yang, Snyder said, is acting like a boy panda should. He's pacing, bleating, urinating — all the things that drive female pandas wild.

"He's getting revved up," Snyder said.

In late winter, "revved" is a good thing to be. Just ask the animals.