January 6, 2005
By Tabisa Mntengwana
THE New Year weekend saw the birth of four babies at the Johannesburg Zoo, with staff being particularly pleased by the birth of a baby sitatunga - an endangered species of buck.
Two bushbuck babies - a male and a female - were born a week after Christmas, followed by the birth of a female sitatunga and a female mountain reedbuck.
"We are proud these animals produced healthy babies," said hoof stock curator Dominic Moss.
"We are very happy about the increase, especially the sitatunga, which is an endangered species," he added.
The sitatunga, found in the wild in Botswana's Okavango swamps and parts of East Africa, is an amphibious antelope that looks similar to the bushbuck or nyala, with six to eight vertical white stripes on its reddish-brown body and white spots on the cheeks, thighs and throat and between the eyes.
It lives in thickly vegetated swamps and, in adapting to its marshy habitat, it has long, splayed hooves that make it easier to stand or walk on islands of vegetation.
In the wild, the shy mountain reedbuck lives on the mountain slopes of Gauteng and the Drakensberg, as well as amidst the koppies of the upper Orange River, while the bushbuck, however, is found throughout sub-Saharan Africa from sea level to mountainous terrain.
Early January also saw the birth of a brace of goats and a couple of antelopes. "We have two new sable antelopes and two Cameroon goats - one female and one male each," Moss said.
"All the animals are eating and coping very well after the births," Moss added.
The youngsters are with their parents and "have been given the necessary vaccinations and are ready for public viewing", according to Moss.
This good news follows the death in December of three baby rheas.
Like ostriches, rheas are large flightless birds found originally in South America.
In early December, the zoo's bird keepers witnessed five chicks hatch after a 38-day incubation period. But, when the babies were just two weeks old, three drowned in the heavy rainstorms that hit Johannesburg.
"We are very disappointed but we couldn't do anything about it," said bird keeper Phillipa Meldrum.
At the start of the mating season the Rhea americana, the largest of the rhea family, laid more than 15 eggs. Some 38 days later the five chicks hatched.
After the death of the youngsters another baby bird was born. "We hope that the other eggs in incubation will hatch in a week or two," Meldrum added.
The chicks have now been removed from the father - who, in the case of the rhea family, incubates the eggs and cares for the chicks. "They are now in our care and are coping very well," added Meldrum.
At this stage the keepers are not sure of the gender of the chicks. "The gender identification process can take up to three weeks so we are patiently waiting for the results," said Meldrum.
Visitors to the zoo can see the chicks in the morning and late afternoons.
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