Baby boom continues at Blank Park Zoo

DES MOINES — Goats, prairie dogs, a penguin and thousands of jellyfish — Blank Park Zoo recently welcomed a whole slew of baby animals.

Eight goats, four prairie dogs, a penguin and thousands of ephyrae (juvenile jellyfish) were born, hatched or strobilated in the past month. This is in addition to the seven (or more) wallaby joeys and the baby camel announced several weeks ago.

The baby goats and prairie dogs can be seen in their exhibit. The baby penguin is held off exhibit until it matures, is vaccinated and is able to swim. The jellyfish also need to mature before entering their exhibit.

“Because we have so many goats that have been born in the past month, you can see the progression of growth between the goats that have been born last week and four weeks ago,” said Amy Kopatich, Kids’ Kingdom manager. “However, they all do not grow at the same pace, because the two week old is bigger than the month old.”

Zoo officials expect that guests will be able to feed them sometime this summer.

Animal Curator Jeff Dier was excited to see the baby prairie dogs.

“It has been about five years since we have had any baby prairie dogs,” he said.

The baby penguin hatched two weeks ago and has doubled in size and now weighs 570 grams.

“Many animals are born in the spring. In the wild, this allows them time to grow and gives them a better chance to survive a harsh winter,” said Kevin Drees, Director of Animal Care and Conservation.

Zoo CEO Mark Vukovich is hopeful more animals may be born this year, although he declined to give specifics on which animals may be expecting.

The goats include a set of twins and a set of triplets and all have been given names: Dexter, Twix, Bean, Thorn, Mario, Luigi, Lilly and Daisy. There is still time to enter the camel naming contest at www.blankparkzoo.com. All entries are due by Monday.

The Blank Park Zoo, is open every day from 10 am. to 5 p.m. and Fridays until 8 p.m. June through August.

The Zoo is located at 7401 SW. Ninth St. in Des Moines. Visit the Zoo online at www.blankparkzoo.com.