CUTE CRIA!

On September 12^th, Lehigh Valley Zoo along with the Lehigh Valley Health Network (the official motherhood partner of the LVZoo) welcomed a baby alpaca to our barnyard herd. A baby alpaca is called a cria. This name comes from the Spanish word crías when translated to English means baby animal. Alpacas come from the Camelid Family which includes camels, llamas, alpacas, guanaco, and vicuna. The camelid family has both domesticated (Camels, Alpacas, Llamas) and non-domesticated species (Guanaco and Vicuna). The non-domesticated species currently live in the Andes Mountains.

Alpacas are among the mammals with the longest gestation period. Their gestation period is between 335-366 days, almost a year! When a mother gives birth, she will continue standing and is most likely to give birth during the daylight hours. This gives the cria enough time to dry off before the sun goes down and it gets colder. Illuminati, our female alpaca, gave birth in our barnyard exhibit during zoo operation hours on September 12th, with a few lucky guests to witness the zoo’s first baby alpaca birth. The boy cria was standing and nursing in no time. As the cria grows, he will put on weight quickly! Within one year, he will go from between sixteen and twenty pounds to one hundred pounds. To put that in perspective, human babies gain only about ten pounds in the first year. Guests and staff watched during the first few hours as the barnyard residents met the little one for the first time. The baby has since started to form a bond with our pot-belly pig, Helga.

Alpacas were domesticated over six thousand years ago by the Andean people as a source of fuel, fiber, and meat. Today, alpacas are a common farm animal around the world that are usually docile and calm when compared to llamas. They are used for the fiber that is woven from their wool. Males can produce about eight pounds of fiber a year and females will produce about five.

When you visit the Lehigh Valley Zoo, come see the new addition to our Alpaca herd and all the other barnyard animals!

LVHN is the Official Motherhood Partner of the Lehigh Valley Zoo.

Written by Dani DiMarco
Interpretation Coordinator 
Lehigh Valley Zoo | Schnecksville, PA

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Let’s Talk Babies: Oryx vs Human

With the addition of our new scimitar-horned oryx calf, we wanted to highlight how oryx calves grow and develop. How long is a female oryx pregnant? Can the calves stand right away? How long do they stay with their mom? We are going to answer all these and more! But that isn’t all we will be doing. We are also going to see how a growing oryx baby compares to a growing human baby. It may shock you just how different the development process is for some animals when compared to humans. We don’t typically think about it, but it can be interesting to compare the two and see how similar or different they are!

Scimitar-horned oryx can breed year-round when environmental conditions are right. They have a gestation period of about 8-8.5 months and usually give birth to a single calf, which weighs around 22 pounds (that’s as heavy as a full-grown dachshund!). Similarly, humans can also have a baby at any time during the year and, with a nine-month gestation period, it is very close that that of an oryx. Did you know that most human babies are born between July and October? August is the most popular month for births.
Like the oryx, humans typically give birth to one baby, however there is the possibility of twins, triplets, all the way up to octuplets (but that is very rare)! Human babies don’t quite weigh the same as an oryx calf. The average weight for a human baby is 5-5.8 pounds, which is nowhere near 22 pounds. Overall, not too many differences so far, but let’s look at development after birth.

Oryx calves can get up and walk just a few hours after birth. But the calves don’t get to join the rest of the oryx just yet since the mothers hide them for 2-3 weeks before rejoining the herd. At around 2 weeks old, calves begin nibbling on solid food, and after 4 months they can feed on their own. At this time, they will leave their mother, but remain in the herd. Oryx are considered mature at around 1-2 years old.
Now, I’m sure you can already tell there are some major differences between oryx calf development and human baby development, but let’s compare! A baby’s first steps are a pretty big deal; but instead of them happening a few hours after birth like the oryx, it usually takes 8-18 months for a human to start standing on their own two feet. And while the oryx can eat solid food early on, it’s going to take around 6 months for a human baby to be able to eat food other than formula/breast milk. Most of us are going to remain with our guardians until we are 18 years old. But could you imagine setting off on your own at 4 months like the oryx? In most countries, we are considered adults once we reach 18 years of age, but our brains continue to develop until we are 25-30 years old! It’s crazy to think oryx are already mature at 1-2 years old. When I was 1, I barely had any idea what was going on!
Whether it be a human baby growing a first tooth or an oryx baby getting it’s adult markings, it’s exciting to watch any baby grow and reach milestones throughout their life. We hope you enjoy getting the opportunity to watch as the newest member of our oryx herd grows up!

Written by Emily Granville
Education Specialist
Lehigh Valley Zoo | Schnecksville, PA

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