Page 13 - Gateways_Fall_2022_flip_Neat

Raising ...When Animal
Raising

...When Animal

Parents Cannot
Zoo
Parents Cannot
Zoo

Chicago Zoological Society staff
Babies must sometimes hand-rear newborn
Babies
and juvenile animals. What does

it take to raise a young animal?

hen Marion, a Bennett’s wallaby in HAMILL FAMILY
W WILD ENCOUNTERS, developed a serious life-
threatening infection, Brookfield Zoo staff had a difficult
decision to make. Marion was carrying a baby joey in her
pouch that had been born only seven months earlier. Treating Out of an abundance of caution, our veterinary staff
Marion for the infection while she cared for her joey could decided it was in the best interest of both animals to remove
jeopardize the health and safety of mom and baby. Whitney from Marion’s pouch and have her hand-reared
At birth, a wallaby joey is blind, hairless, and weighs less by the Wild Encounters, Hamill Family Play Zoo, and
than 0.03 ounces. The animals are marsupials. At birth, a joey Ambassador Animals program staffs.
climbs from its mother’s birth canal to her abdominal pouch A baby animal will be removed from its mother, and some-
where it remains for approximately 280 days. Safe and warm times its family or social group, when the health or safety of the
in the pouch, it nurses on her rich milk and morphs from baby animal or the mother is at stake. However, Brookfield Zoo
a bumblebee-sized fetus into a miniature version of an adult. and other institutions accredited by the Association of Zoos
Marion’s joey, later named Whitney, was only 10 inches long. and Aquariums (AZA) try to avoid doing so in most other
circumstances. That’s because removing a baby animal from
its mother can also risk the health and safety of the baby and
the welfare of the mother. Despite the top-notch care animals
receive from Brookfield Zoo’s skilled and dedicated staff,
there are gaps in knowledge about the needs of young animals
of many species.
Furthermore, hand-rearing an animal is enormously
time-consuming and often challenging. It can require staff
to have intimate and prolonged contact with an animal,
while preventing it from imprinting or bonding with humans.
Whenever possible, the end goal of hand-rearing a young
animal is to safely reunite it with members of its own species
at the earliest possible moment.
On the following pages, you’ll read about several
of Brookfield Zoo’s hand-rearing success stories.

(From left): Whitney Wallaby; Guam kingfisher chick; Pascal,
North American river otter pup, being introduced to water
at HAMILL FAMILY WILD ENCOUNTERS

BROOKFIELD ZOO | FALL 2022 13