Stork brings baby antelope to ABQ BioPark
Unnamed male joins African klipspringer parents at zoo
Goats may be sure-footed climbers, but they’ve got nothing on klipspringers.
A baby klipspringer, a type of African antelope, was born at the ABQ BioPark, the zoo announced Wednesday.
“Our BioPark family is so excited to welcome this new addition,” said Tammy Schmidt, ABQ BioPark curator of mammals. “It’s a healthy boy, and mom and dad are doing an excellent job.”
The baby, which was born Friday and has not yet been given a name, is the offspring of the zoo’s only other klipspringers, father Pogo, and mother Raisin, both 3 years old and first-time parents.
Schmidt said the baby klipspringer is moving around its habitat and growing quickly.
Klipspingers can be found in arid and rocky terrain of mountains and in rocky outcroppings. The range of their native habitat extends from northeastern Sudan, Eritrea, northern Somalia and Ethiopia in the east, to South Africa in the south, and along coastal Angola and Namibia.
These compact, sturdy antelopes weigh from 20 to 40 pounds at maturity and stand about 2 feet tall. Their name, which translates to “rock jumper” in Dutch, is a defining characteristic, Schmidt said.
They have the ability to stand on the very tips of their circular hooves, which are each about the diameter of a dime. Their strong back legs can propel them up a smooth wall and they can balance with all four hooves on a surface not much bigger than a silver dollar. They are “the Olympic stars” of their environment, she said.
Even though klipspringers are a “prey species,” their population is stable. They are elusive and grow a coat that helps
them “blend into the shade and shadows and brush of their environment,” she said.
Browsers and herbivores, klipspringers prefer young plants, flowers and berries — a diet that keepers at the zoo duplicate for the benefit of Pogo and Raisin. “Our two are pretty laid back, but they can be startled easily and give off a shrill whistle type of call when they are alarmed,” said Schmidt. “Otherwise, they are pretty quiet and don’t make a lot of sounds because they are prey species in the wild.”
The gestation period for klipspringers is about seven months. The females generally give birth to a single offspring, who is weened in four to five months and leaves its mother after about a year.
There are currently 54 klipspringers in 19 zoos in North America, Schmidt said.