SALT LAKE CITY — There are a few new babies at Utah’s Hogle Zoo, and they're now on display for the public to see.
They zoo is welcoming two Amur Leopard cubs and a gorilla.
Storm, Skye and the still unnamed baby gorilla joined the Hogle Zoo family this year.
“This is extremely exciting for us,” said Clair Hallyburton, the zoo’s primate supervisor.
The leopard cubs were born in March to mother Zaya and have been bonding with her since.
“Skye is a lot more chill, we call him a ‘mama‘s boy,’ he’s a lot slower, he was a lot slower to start eating meat, he still nurses,” said Asian Highlands keeper, Kelsey Middleton. “He wants to be closer to Zaya than Storm does, she’s more of an independent girl.”
Now that they’re five months old and big enough to be on exhibit, visitors can see them daily.
The zoo hopes people will fall in love with them and work to save the critically endangered species.
“Zoo animals are ambassadors for their species and so you can’t care about something that you don’t know about or that you don’t have a connection with,” Middleton said. “So it’s really important to have a lot of animals in the zoos just because you never know what sparks an interest.”
On the other side of the zoo, keepers are welcoming a new baby gorilla born in July to mother Jabali.
“This has been such a tough time in the world for everyone, and it’s just such a nice thing to be able to come to work and see something so miraculous and be able to be a part of it and be a part of this baby’s life and watch her grow up,” Hallyburton said. “That’s going to be really exciting for all the keepers here, all the public that come to visit here, everyone’s so excited about it.”
The baby doesn’t have a name yet, but the zoo is auctioning off the chance to name her at this years’ Zoo Rendezvous event happening on September 10.
If you’d like to visit the new gorilla you can reserve a time slot from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. daily.
