National Zoo welcomes rare newborns at Front Royal

Veterinarians at the Smithsonian National Zoo's Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal had an exciting and busy day on July 9.

Three endangered species gave birth within 24 hours to a clouded leopard cub, followed by a Przewalski’s horse foal and a red panda cub.

“It was a big coincidence that we had all three of these animals here at the same time,” said Ken Lang, mammal unit supervisor at the center. “It's been busy.”

All three of the endangered species are long-term projects at the Front Royal center, although none of the animals will be on display there.

Jao Chu, a 3-year-old endangered clouded leopard, gave birth to a female cub at 5:30 p.m. Staff had been on a pregnancy watch for several days.

The mother and cub are a part of the Thailand Clouded Leopard Consortium, a collaborative conservation program with the Thailand Zoological Park Organization. The new genetically valuable female cub will increase the gene diversity of the North American Clouded Leopard Species Survival Plan.

According to theriogenologist Dr. JoGayle Howard, with the zoo's Department of Reproductive Sciences, the conservation and research center's work with the species has been a huge success.

“We are kind of the champions of clouded leopards,” she said. “It's hard to breed them, so we did research in Thailand trying to solve male aggression problems and cannibalism in females.”

This recent birth represents the second time Jao Chu and 3-year-old Hannibal have produced offspring. Jao Chu gave birth to two male cubs, Sa Ming, meaning “brave warrior,” and Ta Moon, meaning “mischievous child” on March 24.

As with the first litter, the newest cub will be hand-reared by experienced zoo staff to help with socialization and to reduce the risk of infant mortality.

“We worry about single cubs though because they don't grow up knowing they are a spotted leopard when they are hand-reared,” said Howard. “Our plan is to couple this female with a male in Nashville. She'll go in a month once her temperature stabilizes. She's in an incubator now.”

In addition to the clouded leopards, keepers closely watched female Przewalski’s horse Brandy for the past several weeks as they realized a birth was imminent. The male foal was seen nursing soon after birth which indicates the mother and offspring are bonding well.

“The mother and son are doing great,” said Lang. “We're getting ready to introduce them back to the herd.”

Przewalski’s horses are critically endangered, as only a few hundred reintroduced animals live in protected areas in their native China and Mongolia. The National Zoo is at the forefront of Przewalski’s horse conservation, which includes detailed reproductive studies of the herd at the Front Royal facility, leading the Przewalski’s Horse North American Species Survival Plan and using technology to study their movements in the wild.

A red panda cub, born to Panya, was found in her nest box by keepers early Friday, July 10. This marks the fifth red panda birth in Front Royal within the last three weeks.

Panya had problems with nursing her cub and the baby was transported to the zoo in Washington, D.C. to be hand-reared by staff, according to Lang.

Red pandas, indigenous to China, are endangered because of habitat loss. There are believed to be fewer than 2,500 left in the wild.

Copyright 2009 Rappahannock News. All rights reserved.