POWELL – There has been a real baby boom at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium involving species at risk for survival.
Between May 29 and June 28, the zoo welcomed a Masai giraffe calf, a sea lion pup, two red panda cubs, and a baby gibbon.
The first sea lion pup ever to be born at the facility was a female born to first-time mom Lovell on June 25. Lovell is a 5-year-old California sea lion who arrived at the Zoo along with nine others in May as part of the new Adventure Cove area.
The giraffe calf was born on June 28 to mother, Zuri, who is 10 years old and who gave birth to a calf in 2018, but the calf passed away from viral enteritis at 17 days old. Eighteen giraffes have been born at the Columbus Zoo over the course of its history.
Two currently unnamed red panda cubs, a male and a female, were born on June 13, the first successful red panda births at the Columbus Zoo since 2015. Fewer than 10,000 individual red pandas remain in the wild, their population threatened by illegal hunting and deforestation.
The Australia and the Islands region welcomed a baby siamang on May 29. The sex and name have not yet been determined, Siamangs, which are listed as endangered, are the loudest and largest species of gibbon, known as a lesser or small ape.