Baby Boom at Longleat Safari Park
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 08. 1.07
One of the United Kingdom's top family attractions, as well as the first drive-through safari park created outside of Africa, the Longleat Safari Park nurtures its animal denizens in surroundings that closely mimic their habitats in the wild.
Living proof of Longleat's success: the number of animal babies born in the park each year. Birth rates of animals in captivity tend to be low—getting gawked at by screaming, sticky-fingered children isn't very conducive to igniting the flames of amore—but Longleat must be doing something right because it has definitely been keeping the stock on its toes.
Click below the fold for snapshots of the park's latest rugrats. We're about all awwed out for the day. ::About.com
AWWW ... it's rare for a Canadian Timber Wolf cub to be born in captivity.
AWWW ... Europe's first twin giraffes were born at Longleat in 1986.
AWWW ... Resting lion cubs
AWWW ...mother and baby tapir
AWWW ... sea lion and her pup
See also: ::One in Six European Mammals Faces Extinction, ::Wildlife Preserve Planned for Korean Demilitarized Zone, and ::Massive Herds of Animals Discovered Flourishing in Southern Sudan
And guess where these newborns go after they out-grow their cuteness? Right into the exotic animal trade. There is no way that any zoo, park, etc, can keep up with the sheer breeding capacity of most animals. Its simply not possible.It is this reason, alongside many others, that zoos are not the conversation pieces people try to reason them out to be. They are simply more sophisticated menageries than the ones you see on the side of the road.
dont be to optimistic