Britain's largest zoo welcomes 'boom' of endangered baby animals
WeirdNews
The 13 new fawns are visible to the public at the zoo's Passage Through Asia habitat
LONDON (Web Desk) - Britain's largest zoo announced a "baby boom" Friday, announcing it has welcomed a number of newborn animals, including from species that are endangered and extinct in the wild.
Whipsnade Zoo head of zoological operations Matt Webb said "zookeepers will be busy" as the zoo saw the births of 13 Pere David's deer fawns, which are extinct in the wild, as well as two Przewalski's foals and two Northern Rockhopper Penguin chicks both of which are endangered species.
"These births are important victories for the European Endangered Species Program (EEP) as we work to ensure these animals, which face a myriad of threats in the wild, have a strong and genetically varied population at conservations zoos like Whipsnade," said Webb.
The 13 new fawns are visible to the public at the zoo's Passage Through Asia habitat. The habitat is also home to Przewalski's horses which the Whipsnade Zoo describes as the "only true wild horse."
A new Przewalski's foal, which has yet to be named, was recently born at the zoo, joining the baby Przewalski's horse known named Luujin by zoo staff.
The tiny Northern Rockhopper Penguins born recently to the zoo are native to the South Atlantic region, including parts of Antarctica, and are amongst the smallest species of penguin on Earth.
The population of Rockhopper Penguins has plummeted since the 1950s and it is officially classified as an endangered species. An oil spill in 2011, near the Tristan de Cunha volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, killed a large number of local penguins, including Northern Rockhopper penguins.
