Whoa, baby!
The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo continues to celebrate the birth of three meerkats, who’ve now started to make appearances above ground.
The three babies were born at the zoo in August, joining their mother, father and three older siblings. The meerkats came to the zoo in December 2011 from the Red River Zoo in Fargo, N.D.
In addition to the babies, the zoo is debuting the arrival a female fossa, Bean.
Bean will join Jack, the resident male fossa in the indoor Madagascar exhibit.
“The zoo is a dynamic place and we always have new arrivals,’ said Steve Taylor, director of the zoo. “We’re in front of the fossa cage and the fossa cage and the fossa exhibit here in the zoo is really special because this is a whole are at the zoo in Madagascar and fossas are the main predator on the island and the largest predator on the island of Madagascar.”
Fossas are relatives of the mongoose family. While the zoo has had fossas before, this is the first pair to come to the exhibit. Taylor said Bean and Jack have seen each other through a gate, but soon they will live in the same exhibit. The zoo hopes the two will become future mates.
Along with the fossas, the zoo has added a school of 20 moon jellyfish for the very first time. Moon jellies come from the Atlantic Ocean.
“I’m particularly happy that we now have the moon jellies because we’ve wanted to do that for years and our staff now has the expertise and it’s been developed so you can keep these wonderful animals,” Taylor said. “It’s just wonderful to watch them. It’s very serene and relaxing to watch jellyfish.”