Now Tim, our Zoo Manager is no stranger to new arrivals, but
they're usually of the animal kind. Well not this
time. Huge congratulations to Tim and
his brilliant wife Sara-Jane, who had their own arrival on
Saturday...William Joseph Morphew!
Good job then that Tim got some hands-on baby experience last
week hand-rearing one of our new Capybara babies.
Tim's hand-reared a fair few animals during his zookeeper career
but the arrival of a litter of Capybara babies was a timely
reminder of the needs of a small baby ahead of Tim's own
arrival at home.
Pedra, as she has been named, had to be
hand-reared after being separated from her mother
for a prolonged period of time. Visitors to the park reported
seeing Pedra falling into the pond on which the Capybara live and
although they can swim from birth they aren't strong swimmers and a
failed search of the pond by zoo keepers led them to believe the
baby had died. The next day, a small squeak revealed Pedra
hiding behind a rock and clinging to the bank of
the pond where she had survived alone for 36 hours. However,
by this stage she was in a weakened state and it would be have been
impossible to reintroduce her to her family as they had been apart
for too long and she would most likely have been
attacked.
Now Tim is enjoying some time with his wife and new baby son
Pedra is being looked after by our dedicated team of
zookeepers who take her home with them in the evening (and
who are relieved she no longer requires a night time feed!).
And for those of you wondering about her name, it means Rock in
Portuguese.
Tim feeds Pedra from a syringe
Our daily Goat Milking experiences provide Pedra with an
excellent source of fresh milk
Tim adores his new arrival...the Capybara isn't bad
either!
The rest of the litter with mum and dad