Baby fever hits the Bird Gardens
MAGALIESSIG - The Montecasino Bird Gardens have recently become home to a number of new babies.
The Bird Gardens have always placed a strong focus on conservation. In keeping with their conservation efforts they have, over the past few months, hand-reared three Mexican beaded lizards, three southern ground hornbill chicks, an eastern white pelican chick and a baby ring-tailed lemur, all of which are endangered species.
To contribute to the continued presence of the Mexican beaded Lizard in South Africa, three eggs laid in the gardens were collected for artificial incubation. After 179 days of waiting, three healthy baby lizards weighing between 33 and 44gm and measuring roughly 16cm made their appearance.
An Eastern White Pelican chick called Penelope is the newest addition to the growing number of babies to be found at the Bird Gardens. She weighed a mere 233gm when she was born and was very dark. But under the watchful eyes of her loving and protective parents she is growing very quickly and is becoming lighter as she loses her juvenile feathers.
Another exciting addition to the bird gardens came in the form of a baby male ring-tailed lemur named Amby. Weighing roughly 70gm at birth and spending about a week being carried upside down while holding onto his mother’s chest, his arrival brings the number of lemurs at the gardens to six. Lemurs are native to Madagascar and some species are near extinction as deforestation on the island continues to create problems for the conservation of the biodiversity. In three year’s time Amby should be mature enough to start a family of his own.
