Baby anteater born at Roger Williams Zoo

Posted 8/27/14

Roger Williams Park Zoo’s Tropical America building has an exciting new addition.

Corndog, the zoo’s female giant anteater, delivered her baby on Friday, July 25. Zoo veterinarians confirmed …

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Baby anteater born at Roger Williams Zoo

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Roger Williams Park Zoo’s Tropical America building has an exciting new addition.

Corndog, the zoo’s female giant anteater, delivered her baby on Friday, July 25. Zoo veterinarians confirmed Corndog’s pregnancy in April and were able to monitor the baby’s development with weekly ultrasound exams. They anticipated she would deliver sometime in the first week of August.

Zoo visitors will have noticed that the anteaters were not on exhibit for a short period (Johei, the father, was moved to an off-exhibit area in anticipation of the birth). Access to the holding area windows, where visitors usually can get a good look inside, was set back with stanchions to provide some privacy for the mother and baby.

“We wanted to make sure Corndog and her baby had a quiet environment so they could bond well,” said Tim French, the zoo’s animal program director. “We’re very pleased with the way things are progressing. The newborn, a male, weighed in at 3.75 pounds two days after birth.”

The first six months of life can be very challenging for baby anteaters, so animal care staff will be watching over their charges especially closely for the next several months.

Zoo Executive Director Dr. Jeremy Goodman commented that the birth of a male giant anteater is a significant occurrence in captive populations, because there are very few males in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Program.

Starting this week, the doors to the outside enclosure will be left open, when the weather permits, so Corndog can choose to go outside with her baby for some fresh air whenever she likes. If she does, visitors will likely be able to see the baby clinging to the fur on her mother’s back. Giant anteater babies, which typically are weaned at 6 months, spend most of their first year of life carried on their mother’s back.

Corndog was born in January 2006 at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo in California, and came to Roger Williams Park Zoo in 2011 from the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, Ind. The father, Johei, was born in 2006 at the San Diego Zoo and was the first resident in RWP Zoo’s giant anteater exhibit, which was completed in 2007 with support from Janci Foundation. He also sired the female anteater, Tullah, who was born at the zoo in 2010, and the female, Inara, who was born in 2012.

Corndog was selected to come to Roger Williams Park Zoo to be bred with Johei based on recommendations made by the AZA. Giant anteaters, native to grassland and lowland tropical forests in Central and South America, are listed as “vulnerable” by the IUCN due to loss of habitat and hunting. It is estimated that only 5,000 animals remain in the wild. Giant anteaters have a sense of smell that is 40 times more powerful than a human’s to help them locate ant colonies. They use their four-inch-long claws to rip open termite mounds and their two-foot-long tongues move up to 150 times per minute as they each consume up to 35,000 termites and ants per day.

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