image via – youtube.com
Many people are torn when it comes to zoos and animal parks. On the one hand a lot believe that these animals shouldn’t be placed in small artifical enclosures and think they deserve to be in the wild where they are meant to be. On the other hand, many animals at zoos and wildlife centers are rescued from poachers, sketchy circuses or were accidentally wounded and wouldn’t survive unless they were rescued. Also, wildlife centers and zoos give us such an in depth view and understanding of these magnificent creatures, which gives us an opportunity to understand and help their fellow animals who are trying to coexist in a world filled with humans.
Regardless of where you stand on zoos, the animals themselves should be cherished and treated with decency, love and respect. Sometimes we are treated to the very rare sight of seeing these amazing animals give birth and help keep the numbers of their species above the endangered list. The first and probably most famous zoo animal birth that almost everybody on the entire planet remembers is good old April the Giraffe. People waited and waited for months as they watched the pregnant giraffe in awe waiting for that exact moment she would give birth. Instead of watching their usual tv shows, movies or video games, people were glued to April’s live stream waiting for that baby to come.
When the day finally came it was pretty much like Christmas to many people as the world rejoiced, a new miracle baby giraffe was in the world and all the time, interest and love people put into pregnant giraffe April and her soon-to-be baby all paid off in the end. Although baby animals aren’t born everyday in zoos and no birth really matched the curiousity and worldwide attention as April it still does happen and it is just as exciting when it does!
This brings us to today’s amazing story which features a Zoo in Valencia, Spain called Biopark which is one of the biggest and most popular zoos in the region. The zoo contains over a whopping 4,000 animals and specializes in African wildlife and fauna. However, the zoo is most well known for its intricate and incredibly designed habitats. They use a technique called zoo immersion where people are literally immersed into the habitats with the wildlife without actually disturbing the incredible creatures. Instead of the usual ugly and potentially inhumane cages, they use mostly natural barriers like rivers, lakes, ponds and streams to seperate tourists from the animals.
At first when people get to Biopark they sometimes feel a bit uneasy because it feels like these wild animals could easily jump out of these immersive habitats, since mostly everyone is used to the classic cage design. However, these immersive designs have proven time and time again to be just as safe or even safer then a standard zoo cage habitat. This brings us to the main part of today’s story, which is somewhat of a zebra love story/fairy tale. La Nina a mare and a colt name Zambe were introduced into the immersive and well designed zebra habitat. The two immediately became fond of one another spending most of their days and nights together and soon enough, as it usually happens in nature La Nina was impregnanted.
This beautiful zebra couple were going to have a beautiful baby zebra and start a family! After 13 long months of pregnancy mama was finally ready to give birth. Employees of the zoo knew the day was coming as they all watched to make sure everything went smooth without any complications. Soon guests at the zoo had heard the whispers that the zebra birth was about to happen and they too flocked to watch this mama give birth to her baby. The birth was a quickie, almost as soon as the baby popped it’s little head out the rest of it’s body followed suit. Everything seemed to be running on schedule, no complications and the beauty and miracle of new life was on display for all to see.
When zebras are born in the wild, they immediately get their land legs usually within the first 10-15 minutes after they are born due to the threat of predators. So just as they do in the wild this baby also found his legs and was up and trotting around exploring the habitat within 10-20 minutes. This baby zebra was a bit overzealous and let curiousity get the best of him as he trotted extremely close to the water in the habitat. The clumsy young baby stumbled and fell head first into the watering hole.
At first the people watching didn’t think much of it and you could even hear laughter as people really didn’t understand how dangerous a situation this actually was. Her zebra mom attempted to stop the baby before it tumbled into the water but because she was so exhausted from being pregnant and giving birth she couldn’t hold the baby back from the water. While visitors had a good chuckle, the zoo staff immediately knew this was a bad situation that could go from an amazing moment to a devastating tragedy ending with the baby drowning!
The zoo staff dove into the water and began swamming towards the baby who was taking on water and if intervention didn’t happen soon this baby would soon drown. Luckily the staff got to the baby in time, however the mama zebra’s mom instincts kicked into full gear even though she was completely exhausted. When she saw these predators (aka zoo staff) approaching and picking up her baby she immediately went into ferocious fight mode. She wasn’t going to let any predators let alone humans touch her baby without a very serious fight……
Watch the video below to see the full story:
Please SHARE This With Family and Friends
