Moscow Zoo

The North Death Adder – (Acanthophis praelongus) is found in the north of Australia and in New Guinea. The strength of this small snake's venom completely justifies its name. According to ISIS, besides the Moscow Zoo, this species is now maintained by only three other Zoos in the world. The Moscow Zoo received a pair of those snakes from New Guinea in 1997. We have been trying to obtain offspring from this rare species for a few years, but only quite recently our Zoo has welcomed the first newborn. Most of the young snakes are already able to feed on newborn mice, and only one of them still has to be force-fed.

Surinam pit viper (Bothrops taeniatus) is a venomous snake found in equatorial forests of Columbia, Venezuela, Guiana, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. According to ISIS, at this time this species is only maintained by seven Zoos in the United States and not a single Zoo of Eurasia, except for the Moscow Zoo. Until now, captive breeding was achieved in this species only by the joint efforts of the Dallas and Fort Worth Zoos in Texas, USA. The Moscow Zoo received its first крапчатых ботропсов in 1994. Since then we have attempted to breed this rare species many times, but only in 2004 our attempts became successful, and recently four young vipers hatched at our Zoo.

Micropechis ikaheka – Ikaheka snake. At this time, the Moscow Zoo is the only zoo that maintains this species, which is endemic to the island of New Guinea. Adult snakes arrived at the Zoo from New Guinea in 2000. The first attempt at breeding this species was made in 2002, and in May of that year the first clutch was produced. Unfortunately, at the time incubation was not successful. New repeated attempts to breed this unique species were made in the following years. On March 1, 2004 another clutch of five eggs was produced, and on May 16 two young snakes hatched out of two eggs. This is the fist breeding of this species in the world!

Oxyuranus scutellatus canni – New Guinea Taipan. This species is endemic to the island of New Guinea. It is the largest and the most dangerous venomous snake in the region. Adult snakes can reach the length of about 3.5 meters. The New Guinea Taipan is much larger and more dangerous than its Australian counterpart. At this time the Moscow Zoo is the only zoo that maintains and successfully breeds it in captivity. Work aimed at the breeding of this unique species was started at the Moscow Zoo in 2001 in cooperation with the Volgodon Municipal Zoo under a joint program for the breeding of the most rare venomous snakes of the world. This work resulted in successful breeding of the Taipans, when they produced offspring twice and even three times a year. On May 19, 2004 two more young New Guinea Taipans were welcomed into the world by the Moscow Zoo.

Aspidelaps lubricus – Cape Coral Snake. This species is endemic to the south of Africa. It is one of the smallest аспидов of the region. Because of its small size and difficult husbandry, this species is maintained at this time by only ten zoos in the world. The Moscow Zoo has been successfully working with this unique species since 1990 and has repeatedly bred it. On May 4, 2004 several young snakes of the second generation hatched at our zoo!

Two pairs of Humboldt's Penguins have got chicks. We found out about it by the squeaking coming from their dens (each pair of penguins occupies its own den). The chicks will emerge from their nests in two months, at which time they will not differ so much from the adults in either size or behavior. Five pairs of our penguins have produced offspring at various times. This year we are also hoping to hear the squeaking from other nests.

On October 14 the Sumatran Orangutans had a baby. It is the first occasion at our Zoo when the female is coping with her mother's duties in a full orang family. And she is obviously enjoying them, as after the birth of the baby the expression of happiness has not left her face. It should be said that orangutans are tender and caring parents. However, our zoologists had doubts in regard to a family being created by this particular pair of apes. They were received from different German zoos three years ago. And while nothing noteworthy had been mentioned about the male, our foreign colleagues reported that the female's relations with her partners had been complicated. She arrived at our zoo together with her five year old infant. It is hard to tell why our male of all others has conquered her heart, but they created a happy family. Many entertaining episodes from the life of a "young family with child" can now be observed in their enclosure.

The Taipans are among the most poisonous and dangerous land snakes in the world. The Inland Taipan, or Fierce Snake (Oxyuranus microlepidotus) is the most venomous land snake in the world. It occurs only in inland Australia. An adult snake can reach 2.5 m in length. Considering the taipans' extreme aggressiveness and the very high toxicity of their venom, they are found in zoo collections very rarely. The Inland Taipan is kept by only four zoos in the world. In early spring of this year the pair at the Moscow Zoo mated for the first time, and in May the female laid ten eggs. Some of the embryos died during incubation, but in 70 days eight young snakes hatched out of the remaining seven eggs (one egg produced twins). This is the first breeding of this species in the world in a zoo outside of Australia.

Egyptian Fruit Bats have been kept in the "Nocturnal World" for already several years. These uncommon bats successfully reproduce in the wild. Twice a year a female Egyptian Fruit Bat gives birth to one baby whom she carries on her back for quite a long period of time.

Egyptian Fruit Bat was born in our zoo recently but a sudden death of its mother has cast gloom on this remarkable event. Luckily, the baby that is being hand-reared has adapted to the new conditions and the keepers, who have become his second parents. The baby bat enjoys hanging upside-down clinging tightly to the "mom-keeper"s clothes which is its favourite pastime. The young is spoon-fed with bio-yogurt and fruit-mash, sometimes pears and bananas. He is now learning to fly – first flapping the wings and then trying to cover short distances. As soon as the young is able to fly and eat on its own, it will be introduced into the group of the adult animals.

The chicks Humboldt's penguins have been hatched. The offspring stayed in the nest for two months after hatching, under the tender care of parents who fed them and kept the other penguins away. The young have grown up to the size of the adult penguins and they are now swimming and diving equally with others. The young can be distinguished from the rest of the penguins only by their faded colour. The difference can be noticed especially clearly during the feeding, when, waiting for fish, all the penguins stand in a line in front of the keeper. Now is for the penguins the breeding season and the time for loud spring songs.

It is the first time that Hartlaub's goose (Pteronetta hartlaubii) hatched the young. At the end of last year the bird began nesting and laying eggs which it was hatching throughout the period. The young are now two weeks old and look like funny little fur clumps that follow the mother. The most incredible however is the unusual behaviour of the drake that stands guard over the family members and does not let strangers approach the mother with offspring. Generally, the species form a pair only for mating. Hartlaub's goose is quite rarely found in zoo collections. Moscow Zoo is the only one among EARAZA member zoos that keeps and breeds Hartlaub's goose.
Polar Bear gave birth to the young at the end of November. A distinctive squeak heard from "the den" announced that the offspring appeared. "The den" is a comparatively small, cool and dark place (with only some hay on the floor) which female bear goes into before giving birth to the young. In the wild a female bear makes a snow den; the entrance to it is always tightly closed so that no one could possibly disturb her during hibernation period that follows the birth. The cub is fed on milk and warms the mother. We were to patiently wait for spring to come and wake up the bears. Recently, our female bear followed by her two cubs came out of "the den". Now they are kept in the enclosure and in May (the young bears will be five months old then) the visitors to Moscow zoo will see the family walking about in one of the enclosure of "Polar World".

The exposition based on the fairy-tale "Three Pigs" is open in the Children Zoo. Unlike the tale where the main characters are three pigs, we keep three joyful domestic pigmy pigs. One of the sows has given birth to six young that are in good condition and slowly but steadily put on weight, despite the fact that their mother could not rear them and they were hand-raised. These species has appeared in the collections of animal lovers quite recently. The animals do not cause any problems as they are omnivorous and quite clean (can be walked as a dog twice a day). The keepers admit that domestic pigmy pigs are charming species, and the visitors have a chance to personally make sure of it only by looking at the intelligent expression of the eyes of our "Three Pigs".

King cobra is one of the largest poisonous snakes in the world; some species can be 5,5 metres long. Its natural habitat is quite a large area: South and South-East Asia from India and Pakistan in the west to Indonesia and the Philippines in the east. The prey animals for King cobra in the wild are primarily other species of snakes including poisonous ones. This peculiarity of King cobra was the reason for giving the species such a scientific name as Ophiophagus hannah ("snake eating"). Females King cobras always keep a watchful eye on their eggs laid in the wild: they are aggressive towards everyone who would try to approach their nest whether it is a small animal or elephants and people. King cobras are rarely kept in zoos because of the mentioned above problems. Seldom do the keepers manage to feed the species on rats in captivity, and their breeding is always a unique achievement. The Moscow Zoo obtained a male from the wild (Negara Zoo, Kuala-Lumpur, Malaysia) in 1992; the female was born in 1993 in captivity (Toledo Zoo, USA) and was given to the Moscow Zoo as a gift in 1997. Our specialists have managed to make the pair, and the female has laid eggs this year. The eggs were put into an incubator and have been kept there for more than two months; the temperature humidity level was maintained within the limits of +29oC and 90% correspondingly. Young snakes, which weighed 16-22 grams and were 543-567 mm long, hatched in the late August. The photo depicts the moment of hatching. All the young King cobras are placed in separate enclosures (they are inherent "snake eating") and will be, little by little, trained to feed on mice and rats.

Have a look at this young charming snake (on the photo)! It is an offspring of Philippine pit viper (Trimeresurus flavomaculatus) which natural habitat is the rainforests of Philippine Isls. These snakes have typical coloration that varies from brown to green with yellow spots. It is not the first time that the species have bred in our zoo but the most remarkable thing is that, for the first time in the world practice, two pit vipers of this year offspring are blue in colour.
photo Mamet S.V.

Another significant event is the hatching of Pointed-scaled pit viper (Trimeresurus mucrosquamatus). In the wild this typical big viper species can be found in the forests of Taiwan, in the south of China and in the Northern Viet-Nam. Captive keeping and breeding of the species is quite rare: only Moscow zoo terrarium and the zoo of Taibei have it in their collections. Moscow zoo has been keeping Pointed-scaled pit viper for already five years. The photo depicts how the young is being hatched; it reflects its first glance at the new surroundings.
photo Mamet S.V.

This year the offspring of Ural owl (Strix uralensis) have been hatched. The visitors can watch these rare owl birds on the old territory in "Russian Wildlife" enclosure.
Another owl species, Snowy owl, has successfully reproduced and two young snowy owls, which are still fluffy and grey, can be seen near their parents. As soon as the young are able to fly, they will separate from the parents and independently try to get acquainted with the new surroundings.
So far as the enclosures of both Snowy and Ural owls are specially located in terms of the convenience in observing the species, the visitors can freely watch the birds at a time while walking along the old territory of Moscow zoo.

It goes without saying that successful reproduction of animals in captivity prove to be the sign of their welfare. A number of rare species have bred this year in Moscow zoo. Small-eyed snake (Micropechis ikaneka) in Herpetology Department laid eggs at the beginning of April. In the wild this poisonous snake is found only in New Guinea; they are rare and little is known about its biology. The species is unique and nowhere before did it breed in captivity. Moscow zoo staff obtained the species two years ago from the wild. The eggs are now being incubated artificially and are expected to be hatched in the middle of May.

Among the rare species is Pere David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus) which is kept in the ungulate enclosure on the new territory of the Moscow zoo. Pere David's deer disappeared from the wild last century and are bred only in zoos. Moscow zoo takes part in the conservation of this species in captivity and our animals successfully breed: live-stock in the herd of two males and five females has recently increased with the birth of a charming baby deer.

Some bird species of Moscow zoo collection are also successfully reproducing. It is already the fourth year that a pair of Snowy owl (Nyctea scandiaca), which is kept in Moscow zoo on the new territory next to the bears' enclosure, hatches eggs. Two young appeared at the end of April.

A pair of Rainbow lory (Trichoglossus haematodus), that are kept in the tropical parrots enclosure of the Bird House (the second floor) on the old territory, breeds every year since already four years. This year was not an exception: a lovely nestling was hatched two weeks ago. The parents' care is touching: they feed the new-born from the beak and protect him from the other birds. The visitors find it absorbing to watch the eye-catching, yet half-fledged young parrot that either runs or sits on the tree branches. It will take the new-born a month to fledge and be able to join his elder brothers and sisters.

Moscow zoo collection includes interesting and rare species of birds namely, Ciconia ciconia boyciana (Oriental White Stork) that are kept in a spacious enclosure near the “Bird World”. One of the main peculiarities of the species is a quite complicated mating behaviour: if the male’s demonstrations start and the female shows no response to them, the male becomes furious and it turns out to be a difficult task for our ornithologists to calm him down and protect the female from his aggression. It was last year that Moscow zoo began performing a tricky task of mating the species. Taking into account the temper of males, it was impossible to foresee the consequences but luckily, our male was attracted by a wild caught female instantly. The pair was busy the whole March collecting sticks for nest building. The female has already laid two eggs and the parents are now hatching future offspring replacing each other. The male is determined to protect the family from “invaders” and he is always about to peck careless visitors through the net. We take this opportunity to kindly ask our zoo guests to be prudent and not to expose their lives and the lives of the birds to danger.

We all now face the last winter month which has turned out to be unexpectedly warm. Even coltsfoot flowers have managed to appear from among the stones and have begun to blossom. The irresistible spring smell has woken some of zoo animals and birds as well. Golden pheasant, one of the most beautiful birds in our collection, was probably the first who decided that it was high time he started a family. Shrill whistle can be now heard in the early mornings; it reaches from the so-called "Turiya Gorka" (where pheasants’ enclosure is situated) – our Golden pheasant have been uttering the mating-call for already the whole week.

We are all again excited by the forthcoming appearance of new-borns. Argus female which is kept in the Birds’ House is now busy hatching. Argus is a bird of peafowl and pheasants family. No wonder that male Argus looks fantastic! Its long tail covered by untold pigmented spots is especially remarkable. After finishing all the preparations connected with the nest building, the male spends hours on end sitting and releasing an extremely loud unusual trill. While the small and cute head of the female can be noticed in the farther corner of the enclosure: the female is hatching in the stub hole.

Giant african birds are lively as well. Two-toed ostrich and a pair of ground hornbill that share the same enclosure try to amuse themselves by demolishing the ferro-concrete tree which is supposed to decorate the enclosure. The staff tried to distract the birds’ attention from the tree and hornbills were given splinters and pebble. The staff failed.
The birds managed to get to the iron substance of the tree branch and it was bent. The rest of the tree branches are waiting for their fate. This activity cannot do any harm to the birds as their beaks are rather strong. However, the visitors can expose themselves to danger. So, we take this opportunity to ask you again to take into consideration such impressive results of this destructive activity and bear in mind that ground hornbills are dangerous. Take care of yourselves, do not take the warning notes amiss and avoid putting fingers through the enclosure bars!

All the staff were looking forward for the birth of the Red great kangaroo offspring that was born in the middle of September. This is the first young of the pair! The new-born is now almost of the same size as the mother's bag and has just jumped out of it. Still, he tries not to go far away from his mother.
Brown bear and Asiatic black bear keep up the tradition. At the end of last winter as well as now they have given birth to the young. The new-borns are only one month old and nobody has seen them yet. The squeak, that comes out of the den, gives away the fact of their birth. The bear offspring are born blind and bare. That is why the young bears will remain close to their mother and will not be allowed to come out of the den until they become strong enough. Not before then shall we find out the number of the new-borns. Let us summon up patience!

All the Terrarium staff have been looking forward for the birth of Boigas (Boiga cyanea) offspring. After 100 days of expectation two charming young Boigas appeared. Captive management of these species is rather difficult. The young are unable to provide themselves with food, so they must be fed artificially during half a year.

Bornean orang-utan named Zakhar, whose mother and grandmother were both hand-reared, was born September 9, 2001. No difficulties could be observed during the gestation period but after the birth, his mother did not make any attempt to look after the baby. Zakhar was successfully hand-raised and showed much affection towards his foster-mother. At the age of 7 months when Zakhar could stay alone, the staff was busy preparing both the young and the mother to live together in the same enclosure. The visitors of the "Primate House" winter enclosure can see the results of this work: Zakhar lives with his parents and entertains the public with his joyful games.

The rear Asiatic wild ass – kiang have bred in our zoonursery near Volocolamsk in summer. The mother and her cub are very nice in their spacious sandy enclosure.

A little sloth was born for the first time in Moscow Zoo this year. Unfortunately his mother refused to rear the baby, so it is rearing by "artificial mother" from Zoo staff.

Every year newborn cubs appear in the group of David's deer. This Chinese species was eliminated in nature, in long ago, and now one can see David's deer only in the Zoos. So, every new cub makes happy not only his mother but the zoologists too.

At the beginning of this summer a rare monkey species White-faced saki (Pithecia pithecia) gave birth to a baby in Primate House. It was the first breeding of this South American animal in Moscow Zoo. Just from the birth mother did not allow to her baby to leave her even for one second and it has been sitting on her back or belly clutching at the hair. Some months later little saki will have the courage to make his first independent steps.There is not of outdoor part in sakis’s enclosure, so the zoo visitors will have the possibility to see the mother with the baby only in autumn, when the indoor exposition of Primate House will be opened for publics. The absence of visitors during the early childhood of little monkey is very preferably, since in this period saki females are very timid and stressful.

The second year running one can hear the specific whistle, thin but simultaneously shrill in the enclosure of white owls (Nyctea scandiaca) not far from white bears. Four nestling have appeared here in the nest of a pair of adult birds. Little owls are grey and fluffy when they are hatched, , but then they start promptly to grow and to change grey dress on white with black feathers.In the nature the white owls seldom succeed in rearing more than two nestling, but in the zoo, where the enough food is available and the predators are absent, our owls are successful in rearing twice more nestling.

In the beginning of May in the Department of Entomology the largest European butterflies – Saturnia pyri – started to hatch. After hatching butterflies need time to become dry to spread their wings.
By this time the fifth generation of these interesting and beautiful insects have appeared in the Moscow Zoo.

Tow markhor females gave birth to twins on the Goat Hill.
All four kids are quite well and grow fast. In hot days they shelter in shadows of rocks.

In February the female of Asiatic black bear gave birth to one young. Now visitors can observe them playing in their enclosure.

The mountain goat female gave birth to a pair of snow-white kids. Mountain goats have appeared in our zoo about eight years ago, however, their reproduction was not possible for a long time. At last, two years in succession, these effective animals have healthy brood.

In the "Primat-House" the youngs of very rare lion-tailed macaque have appeared. These monkeys were obtained just recently, and we have received them from three different zoos. So the task was to form a group from unfamiliar animals. Since it was very joyful for keepers when one of females of this new group gave the birth to a young.

In "Terrarium", as the previous years, young mandarin rat snakes have hatched from the eggs. This species of reptiles is very rare in zoological collections and is regularly breeding only in the Moscow zoo.


{ Newborn ~ New exposures ~ New animals ~ Meetings and expeditions }