Toronto Zoo welcomes baby zebra
Mare and foal are doing well, but won’t be available for public viewing until the spring
The Toronto Zoo welcomed a baby zebra this month — and it’s asking the public’s help to name the new animal.
Tori, an 8-year-old Grevy’s zebra, gave birth to a male foal on Feb. 13, the zoo said in a news release Tuesday.
It’s the third foal Tori has had at the zoo. She had Leia in January 2014 and Rey in July 2016. All three were sired by Jake, an 11-year-old male.
The zoo is calling the newest addition “Baby Stripes,” pending a real name based on a public vote on their Facebook page.
Zookeepers have come up with four options to choose from. J.J., after the foal’s dad, Jake T.J. for Tori Jr. or for the foal’s parents Tori and Jake
Chewy, in keeping with the Star Wars theme in the family Obi, also related to Star Wars. The most popular name will be announced March 12.
The zoo said both the mom and foal are doing well, but won’t be available for public viewing until the spring.
“Baby Stripes” weighs in at 50 kilograms. Kim Welfle, the zebra keeper at the Toronto Zoo, says he’s already heavi- er than some of the other newborn foals she’s seen.
“Within about a day or so, he started mouthing and testing out hay, which is great ... he’s already started mouthing hay, testing out the herbivore cube ration that we offer these guys,” Welfle said in an interview. “He’s a very, very hungry little man. I’m sure he’s going to grow very fast.”
For someone who’s only been alive for two weeks, Welfle said the unnamed baby zebra is a “very curious” boy.
Tori “is the dominant female in a herd,
so she’s super confident and she passes that confidence onto all of her kids,” she said. “The little boy, just like his two sisters, is very curious. Very confident. He doesn’t have any issue of walking away from mom and exploring his indoor area.”
While the cold weather has prevented the new foal from going outside, Welfle said he’s making the best of it.
“When the others are outside exploring the area, we open up the entire barn so that he has a huge running space so he can flex his legs and get some speed up and just explore the indoor habitat,” Welfle said. “He loves what we call getting his zebra zoomies out, and he just runs and bucks and acts like a little goof when he gets his space for him to explore.”
Grevy’s zebras are currently listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, with the global population at 2,800.
Grevy’s zebras are primarily found in Kenya and Ethiopia. Their global population declined by about 70 per cent over the past 30 years, the zoo said.
The major threats facing Grevy’s zebras are loss of grazing habitat and reduced access to available water sources, competition for resources, hunting and disease.