Spring is here, when a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of love, and apparently a young bongo’s fancy does the same.
Matilda, a rare eastern bongo, is expecting her fifth offspring in June, which is great news for Matilda and the father, Tambo, as well as for Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci, an antelope species from the mountains of central Kenya. It is estimated that fewer than 500 eastern bongos remain in the wild.
The baby bongo will be part of a wave of new additions at the zoo, where the biggest news is a possible panda event.
Lun Lun, Zoo Atlanta's giant panda, could be pregnant. It's hard to tell with pandas. Though Lun Lun has been trained to participate in ultrasound testing, the technology is imprecise in the panda community, and can miss detecting a fetus until days before a birth. Conversely, pandas can have "pseudo-pregnancies" that aren't pregnancies at all, but resemble them behaviorally and hormonally.
“We may not know officially until she actually gives birth,” said zoo spokeswoman Rachel Davis. Lun Lun was artificially inseminated on March 28, which would mean a new cub could arrive in mid-July. The father is Yang Yang.
This would be Lun Lun's sixth cub. Her twins, Mei Lun and Mei Huan, were born in 2013, and will turn three this summer. You can see a video of their first year here.
If it's possible to be cuter than a baby panda, Keju, has achieved that feat. A Bornean orangutan, whose biological mother in a Madison, Wis. zoo failed to offer care, Keju arrived in Atlanta last fall. She was adopted by Madu, Zoo Atlanta's Sumatran "supermom," who has adopted four orangutan infants despite having no biological offspring of her own.
This month Keju (the name means “cheese”) turned 1, and, true to her name, proved a delight to photographers.
Other blessed events at the zoo:
•Kudzoo, the western lowland gorilla, and daughter of Willie B., is expecting, and due to deliver in September. It will be her third offspring. The father is Taz.
•Tuza and Snake, who are kori bustards, hatched a chick on April 1. It is the first kori bustard hatched at Zoo Atlanta, and is being reared by zoo staff until it is strong enough to be introduced to its parents, who are first-timers.
•Four Guatemalan beaded lizards were hatched at the zoo last month. The lizard is an attractive and extremely rare reptile: only about 350 are believed to exist in the wild.
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