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Al Ain Zoo welcomes its most recent addition to its world renowned antelope and gazelle collection – a newborn male Mhorr gazelle. The orphaned gazelle has been hand-reared by Al Ain Zoo’s professional zookeepers and team of veterinary experts after its mother passed away only hours after giving birth.
Al Ain Zoo has been taking all necessary steps to not only ensure the gazelle grows to be healthy and strong, but can also be easily re-integrated into the herd at a later stage. Consequently, the baby gazelle is bottle-fed five times per day by the zoo’s animal keepers so the newborn receives ample nutrition and nourishment. Moreover, although the baby gazelle is kept in a separate pen so he can be closely monitored by his keepers, the zoo has built the enclosure in close proximity to his herd. This strategy enables the baby to maintain the connection and contact with the rest of the Mhorr gazelles to eventually enable a seamless re-introduction once he is weaned and can feed himself.
Majid Al Qassimi, Assistant Associate Veterinarian at Al Ain Zoo, commented:
“We are thrilled that the orphaned young male has been in great health since birth. In the unfortunate cases where the mothers of newborns are unable to care for their young – either due to abandonment or problems in childbirth
Al Ain Zoo’s team of animal experts and keepers have the skills and training to rear these babies to health and then re-introduce them back into the herd.”
Dr. Arshad Toosy, Manager Veterinary Operations at Al Ain Zoo, added:
“We are delighted to welcome the new baby Mhorr gazelle to our world famous antelope and gazelle collection. The Mhorr gazelle, the western sub-species of the Dama gazelle, once lived in the Sahara desert areas in Morocco. Their numbers have rapidly declined due to hunting, over grazing by domestic livestock and civil unrest, and today the Mhorr gazelle exists only in captivity, where breeding and re-introduction programs are its only hope for survival.”
The baby Mhorr gazelle represents another example of Al Ain zoo successfully raising a newborn animal. Al Ain Zoo is also one of the few zoos in the world to successfully rear a giraffe calf that had been abandoned by its mother. Almost a year old, this baby giraffe is now in great health and on display for visitors. Because of its status in the wild, the protection of the threatened sub-species is critical, particularly as Al Ain Zoo’s herd of Nubian giraffes is among the very few in captivity worldwide.
Al Ain Zoo is a proud member of the World Association for Zoo and Aquaria (WAZA) and is actively involved in several internationally co-ordinated conservation projects and works with other like-minded organisations such as Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, The Species Survival Commission, San Diego Zoo, Edinburgh Zoo, World Conservation Union and Species Survival Commission, the Northern Rangelands Trust of Kenya and the Sahara Conservation Fund to conserve and re-introduce threatened arid land species such as Arabian oryx, Scimitar-horned oryx, giraffes and gazelle.
Al Ain Zoo is open daily from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm. During the Eid Al Adha holidays and on UAE National Day the zoo will be open from 10:00am to 10:00pm. Ticket sales end one hour before the zoo closes.
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