What’s new at Hogle Zoo? A bouncing baby zebra.
Ziva and Ziggy had a foal on Saturday, and Hogle Zoo is ready to introduce her to the world. Their still-unnamed offspring will make her first public appearance on Thursday morning.
(Photo credit: Hogle Zoo) Ziva the Zebra and her baby, born Saturday at Hogle Zoo.
If meeting the public at the age of five days seems quick, well, as a member of a “prey species,” zebras in the wild have get up and going immediately.
”They have to be ready to run as soon as possible in case a lion is watching,” said Hogle Zoo spokeswoman Erica Hansen. “This baby was alive for about 18 minutes before she first stood up. Within 30 minutes, she was practicing kicking and trying to figure out what her legs were and how they worked.”
Weighing in at roughly 74 pounds and cute as a little striped equine can be, the youngster is the Hogle Zoo’s fifth Hartmann’s mountain zebra — an endangered species — and the second born there in the past 14 months.
“That’s why we chose that particular species when we opened African Savanna, so we could help continue the conservation messaging,” said Hansen. “We’re really excited about this birth.”
“This one of the critical roles that zoos play. It’s about survival of a species.”
In addition to the new baby’s parents, the zoo is home to Zoey and her daughter, Poppy, born in April 2017.
Yes, Ziggy is the father of both foals — and according to zoo officials he’s “mostly unconcerned with what’s happening.”
Ziva, on the other hand, is “proving to be a wonderful first-time mom.”
Beginning Thursday, Ziva and her new daughter will be out daily from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. — weather and mother permitting — at the African Savanna exhibit at Hogle Zoo at 2600 Sunnyside Ave., Salt Lake City.
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