Тогательное, пятничное
Будущие воспоминания(kavery) wrote:
(http://kavery.livejournal.com/1240226.html)
В Taronga Zoo (Sydney, Australia) родился недавно карликовый бегемотик. Ее в новостях показали сегодня, а вот тут фотографии попались. Зовут малышку Monifa. Правда она прелесть?
[600x388 40.792 Kb]
[600x389 56.622 Kb]
[567x400 50.633 Kb]
[277x400 29.693 Kb]
Photos: Kate Geraghty
Sydney Morning Herald
November 7, 2008
Taronga Zoo's new pygmy hippo baby was unfazed by the cameras, lapping up lunch before jumping into a bath.
But her birth three weeks ago was almost too much for Monifa, whose name means "I am lucky" in Nigerian.
A difficult breach birth left the calf struggling to live, said zookeeper Renae Zammit.
"She was quite weak, and it was evident that if we didn't intervene she wouldn't survive," Ms Zammit said.
At her birth Monifa weighed less than four kilograms. She has since gained two kilograms, but is still no more than half a metre long.
Until last week, Ms Zammit and her colleague Tracey Roberts took 24-hour shifts watching and feeding the calf, who will remain on a milk substitute for several weeks at least.
"We would obviously have wanted her mother to raise her, but she definitely would have died if we didn't step in," Ms Zammit said.
"Every day she's getting better and stronger, and eating more and putting more weight."
Monifa is the zoo's first newborn pygmy hippo in 23 years.
When fully grown, the extremely endangered pygmy hippos are just one-fifth of the size of their more common cousins.
It is estimated there are fewer than 3000 left in the wild, hidden away in the jungles of western Africa.
"Every hippo birth in a zoo is helping to support those wild ones that are ever decreasing through logging and pollution and hunting," Ms Zammit said.
"She's very very special."
Monifa is the zoo's fourth pygmy hippopotamus.
AAP