Taronga Western Plains Zoo welcomes new giraffe calf as lion cubs make public debut

Zookeepers at Taronga Western Plains Zoo are seeing double with a second giraffe calf born in a matter of weeks. Meanwhile the zoo’s 16-week-old lion cub triplets have played up to the crowd at their public debut.

Zookeepers at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo are seeing double with a second giraffe calf born in a matter of weeks.

Born on Saturday July 23 in the late afternoon sunshine, Wayo - meaning footprint in Swahili - joined Matata who entered the world five weeks prior.

After a visitor to the zoo spotted Wayo’s birth, the newborn needed a helping nudge from mother Mvita, and was finally able to walk after two hours.

Giraffe keeper Billy-Jo Vial said staff waited with baited breath for the calf to stand tall.

“He had a quite interesting birth, we had a guest observe it at 2.55pm and we got there a few minutes later and we watched the calf get to its feet for the first time and he was quite slow – he took a couple hours to stand up which is not normal to be honest,” Ms Vial said.

“As a zookeeper when you watch your animals you are a little bit worried, because you take care of them every day but you kind of come up with a back-up plan of what we might do if we have to intervene but thankfully Mvita did a good job of using her feet to get him up.”

Wayo was born at Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo on Saturday, July 23. Picture: Rick Stevens

Ms Vial said the birth of the calves was a result of the successful breeding program at Dubbo Zoo, which was a vital “insurance policy” for the mammals - with only 110,000 giraffes left worldwide.

“Most people don’t realise that there’s a silent extinction of giraffes happening in the world,” she said.

“We’ve hit a great milestone with our giraffe breeding program; some of our females are pregnant (and) we’ve got another three that are (on the way).”

Wayo with its mother Mvita. Picture: Rick Stevens

Meanwhile it was the first public appearance for the three lion cubs of first-time parents, Marion and Lwazi, on Tuesday - with the trio putting on a show for guests.

Visitors to the zoo will now be able to see the cubs between 11.15am and 2.15pm daily, with that time to be extended as the cubs grow in confidence in the next few weeks.

Supervising lion keeper Justine Powell said the cubs were developing nicely since their birth on April 7, 2022.

Two of the three new lion cubs born during their first public appearance on Tuesday, July 26. Photo: Rick Stevens

“The now 16-week-old female cubs are all very healthy, putting on approximately one kilogram per week and transitioning well onto a meat diet,” Ms Powell said.

“Each of the cubs have big personalities but very different as well and we are loving observing more of that show as the cubs explore their habitat.”

As the cubs continue to develop, mother Marion has caught the eye of Ms Powell with the zookeeper describing her as the “perfect mum”.

Lwazi playing with one of the three new lion cubs. Picture: Rick Stevens

“She’s very attentive, she’s always keeping an eye on them, she won’t generally just leave them,” Ms Powell said.

“She’s worried about them, especially when we first introduced dad (Lwazi) to them, she made sure she let him know that she was actually the boss and that she would pull him up if he was a bit rough with them.

“Even now she will pull him up if he pushes the boundaries too much with them because he’s almost 200 kilograms so one paw on them (can be dangerous).”

Similar to the vulnerability of giraffes, African lions are classified as vulnerable in the wild as populations continue to decline due to animal conflict, depleted prey base and habitat loss.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo is leading the way in the conservation of African lions as well as other threatened wildlife species and its programs are continuing to pay dividends, staff claim.