This week’s cute pictures of a baby hippo aren’t the first of a new arrival at Dublin Zoo this year – and they won’t be the last

ANOTHER WEEK, another tiny animal beaming in photographs taken at its home in Dublin Zoo. Lately it feels as though you can’t open a newspaper or turn on the TV without a baby giraffe staring out or, in yesterday’s case, the smirk on a new hippo calf as it wallows in water with its mother.

So where did this baby boom in Dublin Zoo come from, and does it show any signs of abating? In less than a year the zoo has welcomed a female giraffe calf called Arria, a male rhino calf called Zuberi, two calves called Jessie and Woody, a goat called Spock, Kituba the baby western lowland gorilla, and a male giraffe calf. Earlier in 2010, eight Chilean flamingo chicks, a leopard tortoise, four red river hoglets, two Sulawesi crested macaques, a baby goat, two calves and a white crowned mangabey began their lives in the Phoenix Park. And a couple of red pandas to boot.

There are 39 species in breeding programmes at Dublin Zoo and all of the breeding animals are documented in the zoo’s stud book, similar to that used by thoroughbred horse breeders. The book contains details of the genetic makeup of all the animals, so that inbreeding doesn’t occur when pairs are selected for mating.

Helen Clarke, the team leader of the African section at Dublin Zoo, says that a spate of more unusual animal births is what is drawing attention to the breeding programmes.

“There are different kinds being born, which catches people’s eyes,” she says. “So we had a rhino birth, lots of giraffes, a couple of red pandas, the baby hippo, of course, and the baby gorilla.”

The breeding is cyclical. A rhino’s gestation period, for example, is 16 months, so the animal generally tends to give birth only once every few years. “They’re all planned pairings,” Clarke says. “You can put a couple of animals together and think you’ve made a mating, but the animals mightn’t find each other compatible. Or you could have two together who take four or five years to mate.”

As for the unnamed new hippo calf, Clarke describes his or her mother as “quite ferocious”, adding that “pairing her is a bit risky. She only tolerates the male when she’s in season. She wants nothing to do with him otherwise.”

Thankfully, the births at Dublin Zoo, which are hugely important for both publicity and increasing visitor numbers, show no sign of abating. Two Brazilian tapirs have just been paired up, with zoo workers hopeful that they will mate, particularly as the male tapir is “prolific”, as Clarke describes it. White-collared mangabeys have also been mating recently, and at least one of their fellow primates in the macaque enclosure is also due to give birth shortly. Perhaps most excitingly of all, another gorilla is due to be born soon.

“The mother’s due within the next month or so, but there’s a lot of give and take on the expectancy time,” Clarke says. “We’re praying for a good outcome, because it’s her first birth.”