MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee County Zoo population is growing with several new additions.
Cinder, the four-month-old red panda cub, six male black-tailed prairie dogs and three female scimitar-horned oryx are being welcomed to the zoo.
Cinder is being slowly introduced to her outdoor habitat with help of the animal care staff. She will now be making appearances in her outdoor habitat.
According to a news release, Dr. Erin, aka Mom, is always out in the habitat with Cinder. At first, the cub was very cautious, and a bit unsteady, but now she’s doing a lot better. Keepers say she especially likes climbing the trees in her habitat! She’s still learning how to use her tail to balance, so sometimes it’s curled up around her.
The oryx are arriving from The Wilds in Cumberland, Ohio. Two of the three are half-sisters, Moza and Zahara. They're both just a year old. The third oryx, Babe, is six years old. Their new home is the former elephant yard.
A scimitar-horned oryx is a type of large African antelope. The scimitar-horned oryx have been declared extinct in the wild since 2000. They used to be widespread across North Africa. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), there are less than 1,800 scimitar-horned oryx left in the world. In good news, reintroduction projects for the scimitar-horned oryx have been started in Tunisia, Chad, and Niger.
The prairie dogs are located in the North America section. They are doing well and already digging their burrows and holes in their new habitat. According to the news release, the prairie dogs will hopefully hibernate in mid-November, so they need to get their tunnels finished and stabilized for the winter.
All of the animals are in their outdoor habitats and available for viewing by zoo guests.
Head on over to the zoo to check out these cute new additions.
