4 | Houston Zoo Inc.
COVID
Care for Animals Continued Unyielding care for animals continued, with keeper teams alternating to maximize social distancing. In the early hours of April 10, a male Schmidt’s red-tailed monkey was born to mother Njeri and was named ‘Peter Rabbit’ in honor of Easter weekend. Peter was hand-raised by keepers and veterinary staff members throughout the pandemic after the infant could no longer hold on to his mother immediately after he was born. Peter is reunited with his mom and flourishing.
In May 29-year-old Asian elephant Shanti gave birth to a 326-pound male calf. Immediately following his birth, the elephant team and veterinary staff saw that he was hemorrhaging severely from his umbilicus. The team acted quickly to sedate the one-hour-old calf and get him into emergency surgery. The Houston Zoo veterinarians preformed the 30-minute procedure to find the torn vessel, stop the bleeding, and repair the umbilicus. The calf, named Nelson, is thriving in the care of his mother, herd, and animal care team. Other animals born during the pandemic made less eventful entrances to the world. A male giant anteater, Traci, was born, three lesser hedgehog tenrecs were hand-raised by their keepers, and a baby okapi kept the animal care team busy all summer.
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