Baby boom at Toronto Zoo
Posted May 23, 2017 4:23 pm.
Last Updated May 23, 2017 5:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
While staff at the Toronto Zoo are in the midst of a strike, the inhabitants of the zoo have been keeping rather busy.
There’s been a baby boom for three first-time moms this spring.
Five cubs were born to 4-year-old cheetah Laini on April 30. This is Laini’s first litter and the zoo says she’d doing a superb job caring for them.
For the first time in the zoo’s history, two clouded leopard cubs were born. They arrived on May 13, just in time for mother’s day.
However, first-time mom 4-year-old Parvati didn’t quite take to her offspring.They’re being hand raised by zoo staff after the vet determined their health was failing and they needed special attention.
The most recent arrivals are three snow leopard cubs born on May 18 to the zoo’s 7-year-old female Ena. Both mom and babies are doing fine and the cubs are said to be nursing very well.
The snow leopard is classified as an endangered species and the Toronto Zoo is participating in a conservation breeding program for them.
As for when you can see them in person – the zoo remains closed due to the ongoing strike by about 400 employees including zookeepers.
Talks between the Toronto Zoo and its striking workers abruptly ended without an agreement on May 20.
Both sides agreed that the dispute is not about wages and benefits. The only issue standing in the way of a new agreement is job security.