Birth wave at Eindhoven Zoo, fourteen animals born

A birth wave took place at Eindhoven Zoo this spring. At the zoo in Mierlo, as many as fourteen animals gave birth: one Humboldt penguin, one camel, two reindeer, two boar deer, two alpine ibex and six wolves.

"The large presence of storks early this spring has clearly paid off," jokes head zookeeper Stephan Rijnen. "All the animals are fortunately doing well."

The animals came into the world between March and June. Rijnen continues, "We are very happy with all the births and in particular with the young of the wolves, boar deer and penguins. Indeed, with the births of these three species we are contributing to the European management program."

Threats
Boar deer are found in the wild in South and Southeast Asia. They like to live in dense forests, but they also occur in open areas. The biggest threat is posed by the fact that these animals are hunted by humans for their meat.

The Humboldt penguin lives in the wild on the coasts of Chile and Peru. The animals are threatened with extinction in the wild by predators who like to feast on their eggs. Man also poses a threat to this species, including oil pollution and overfishing.

Special
The birth of wolves in our park is extra special, according to Rijnen: "The last time wolf pups were born in our park was six years ago. One of the pups from then has now become a mother herself. In addition, few wolves gave birth in European zoos this year, but four other parks gave birth to pups. We are therefore very happy about the birth of these animals."

Storks
Rijnen explains enthusiastically, "We had as many as thirteen nests with nesting storks this year. One or two eggs hatched per nest. We therefore assume that about twenty young storks were born in our park this year. It's great that in this way we can contribute both to the conservation of species from afar and from nearby."

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