LOUISVILLE, Ky. — If you wander through the wild wonders of the Louisville Zoo, you’ll see some new faces. The Louisville Zoo has been booming with babies.

What You Need To Know

  • The Louisville zoo has had 100 different births and hatchlings of new baby animals this year

  • A tiger cub was born for the first time in more than 20 years and their first giraffe calf in more than 12 years along with the 61st antelope calf born at the zoo since the zoo opened in 1969

  • The zoo is involved in a cooperative breeding program to help the animals have happy and healthy lives

Executive director Dan Maloney said the new arrivals are making the zoo even more magical.

“We’re really excited. It’s been a heck of a season and we have lots of births and hatchlings, some of the more notable ones. The first tiger cub in more than 20 years and our first giraffe calf in more than 12 years. We’ve got an Addax calf, you know, an antelope that was just born a little over a week ago,” said Maloney.

This is the 61 antelope calf born at the zoo since the zoo opened in 1969.

Tevion Posey visited the first time at the zoo since he was a kid.

“Yeah, I’m off today for like, you know, there’s nothing I’d rather be here than spend indoors playing video games or something. Come out, learn, explore maybe, you know, see something amazing,” said Posey.

Posey said his favorite animals are the gorillas. Abeo, a 1 1/2-month-old infant male western lowland gorilla, came to Louisville from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, where he was born June 28. He will be raised by a surrogate.

“Hopefully getting to see the baby gorilla. But they said it’s still in the nursery, you know, getting accustomed to everything, making sure that they all can get along. So but it’s understandable,” said Posey.

The Zoo has more than a thousand animals and this year they have had 100 different births and hatchlings of new baby animals.

Maloney said the zoo is involved in a cooperative breeding program to help the animals have happy and healthy lives.

“You’re breeding so that these animals already have places to go. You’re trying to keep the bloodlines as healthy as possible. You’re trying to minimize relatedness and so the opportunity to have these breeding, it’s why it doesn’t occur, is often because you have to try to manage responsibly,” added Maloney.

Maloney called the zoo a living classroom of our wildlife and hopes after people come and visit so they will have a deeper appreciation for wildlife and the conservation efforts that go into saving species.

The Louisville Zoo has set up a couple of different cameras to watch animals. You can see tiger cub cam and giraffe calf cam online.

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