Original subtitles

What is cute to us is dinner to others.

Calves like these have to learn to run and walk quickly

to escape scary predators.

In the wild the giraffe, the pronghorn, the zebra,

and the muskox need to learn fast or die young.

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(Birds chirping)

This is Lester.

Lester was 117 pounds at birth,

but just wait until he grows up.

At just 1 year old he used to be the baby around here,

but lately, competition is fierce.

Three months ago, this male showed up.

And then a month ago this unnamed female showed up.

She was a whopping 192 pounds at birth.

The biggest baby this zoo has ever seen.

But Lester doesn't seem to mind.

And all three of our calves,

they hang pretty closely together.

They love to play,

they'll chew on each other's ears,

chew on each other's hair

just to hang out and have a good time.

All three calves were born to different mothers,

but they all have the same dad, Duke.

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Duke is our adult male

and he has fathered 14 calves here at the zoo.

Duke is a little distant,

he does his own thing usually when he's out on exhibit.

But he likes our female keepers the most,

his favorite food is bananas.

We give him a banana every morning

when he shifts on to and off of exhibit.

And he can be very stubborn at times,

he likes to stay close to our adult females,

if they're not going out yet he likes to kind of hang back

until they're out on exhibit also.

All of Dukes calves have hit the ground running,

literally.

When they're born,

they have a 6 foot fall to the ground.

And within an hour they're running around

that's to help them survive.

In the wild

babies are prime targets for predators,

so they don't have time to waste.

Giraffe females even synchronize their breeding cycles,

so they all give birth at once.

Safety in numbers.

Lester was born in captivity, but that doesn't mean

he necessarily had an easy start.

His mother died only three months

after he was born.

Within the first couple of days he was sad.

He made noise, he went out on exhibit

and when she wasn't there,

he was making noise looking for her.

In the wild, a dead mother

would surely be the end of Lester

since male giraffes usually don't take part

in the parenting process.

But thankfully,

zookeepers stepped in and took over.

Lester was still nursing when his mother died,

so they had to find a different source of milk

to keep him fed.

When Lester's mom passed away,

they obviously had to make some kind of supplement for him,

because he wasn't eating the grain and the brows

the way our adult giraffes were,

so we tried a couple different kinds

of grain, and milk, and milk replacement pellets.

It definitely requires a different level of care,

a more intense level of care.

But even through hardship,

Lester has maintained a great attitude.

Lester has definitely a very unique personality,

his mom was a wonderful calm giraffe.

So when his mom passed away in May,

the keepers took care of him very closely,

so he's very desensitized to being around us.

He'll walk right up to us when we give him his grain

and he's just a very good giraffe.

He's got a very sweet personality.

And now with these new baby giraffes

joining the family,

Lester seems to be getting back to his old self.

That's what I love about the new calves being here

is that that's kind of brought that out in him again.

He was not a loner,

but he was much more calm than a giraffe his age

normally would be.

So now that we have these new little ones,

he's really kind of just started hanging out with them

and acting a little more fun.

Fortunately, calm little Lester has a fun friend

in this still unnamed baby female.

She is definitely the liveliest of the bunch,

she's a very dainty little girl,

she steps around all our mud puddles.

She's made the group very lively actually.

It's wonderful having all the young ones there

and just seeing them play and chase each other.

Some of our older females that don't have any offspring,

they hover around her,

they'll come check on her and take care of her.

Giraffes grow up fast.

In the wild,

Lester would be weaned between 9 to 12 months.

By 1 to 3 years old,

he would leave to join an all-male group.

And then when he's around 7 or 8,

start a family of giants all his own.

But here at the zoo,

he gets a bit more time to just play around

and be a young giraffe having fun.

Twins are usually double the trouble.

But when you've got two sets of twin baby pronghorns,

well, that's four times the work.

And four times the meat

for a predator looking for a tasty treat.

Pronghorn are very vulnerable to a few predators in the wild,

the biggest one is wolves and coyotes.

When baby pronghorns are born,

they take a couple of hours to get up and go.

So mom usually leaves them hidden in some tall grass

to wait until she comes back to nurse them.

But mum isn't worried about her newborns,

because baby pronghorns have no smell to them,

so they can stay hidden

even when predators are very close.

Besides hiding

baby pronghorns don't have any defenses,

so it's up to them to eat as much as they can

so they can grow fast.

Baby pronghorns are basically miniature versions

of the adults, but they are so cute.

They've got these huge brown eyes

with these wonderful eyelashes, great big ears, slender legs.

And they like to hit the bottle pretty hard.

The animals take 30 seconds to a minute

to take that milk in.

It's every three hours from 7:00 in the morning

until 10:00 at night and then we start to cut back.

They are being bottle-fed at this point in time,

because their mothers

were not particularly good mothers.

Our other mother,

who we affectionately call Blue tag,

was really interested in both her twins initially.

She cleaned them off, she let both of them nurse.

But then she lost interest and we were losing the twins,

because they were hungry and she was not nursing them.

But luckily these twins have each other to lean on

even if they can't depend on mom.

What you'll see quite often is they'll be resting together,

one will get up and start to graze

and that will sort of get the other one up

and grazing.

Both sets of twins love to eat together

and they're never far apart.

They're also keeping a careful eye

on the adults in the herd,

which is how they'll learn proper pronghorn behavior

without their mothers to teach them.

So they're going to hopefully,

adapt to typical pronghorn behavior

by watching what the adults are doing.

Watching the adults

will teach the babies how to survive

like where to find the tastiest treats,

how to hide from predators,

and most importantly how to move fast,

their main defense.

And a pronghorn needs to learn how to use these,

they're a cross between horns and antlers

and both males and female have them.

Although a female's prongs are smaller and develop later.

Little male is already developing

little horn buds,

so if you were to touch the top of its head,

you'd feel two little bumps.

Baby pronghorns have to grow up fats,

so they can survive a long cold winter.

Pronghorn have this great thick coat

for winter, which they will shed,

so they'll be shaking their coats

and out will emerge a summer coat

which is much thinner.

Light-colored fur helps pronghorns blend

into the tall dry grasses where they live.

They literally disappear into that grass

and you have to look quite carefully for them.

Hiding is important for babies to avoid being eaten,

but sometimes they also have to run away

and pronghorns are amazing runners.

So as a car goes down the highway

or you're driving down the highway

at about 100 kilometers an hour,

pronghorn can run about that fast.

That's almost as fast as a cheetah

and pronghorns can keep up their high speeds even longer.

The babies often bound around inside the zoo enclosure,

building up their muscle,

so they can make those high-speed runs.

(♪♪♪)

It's hard for predators to sneak up on pronghorns,

they have protruding eyes

which means they can see pretty far on each side.

Pronghorn also have these giant ears,

they're great for flicking flies,

but they're also paying attention

to the landscape and what's going on around them.

Pronghorns are very curious creatures,

hunters used to tie rags to poles and wave them

until the pronghorns came over to see what was going on.

Flagging isn't allowed anymore,

the pronghorns still like to get a close look at the action.

(Cameraman laughs)

Alright.

When they're not investigating, pronghorns are usually eating,

sitting down or doing both at once.

If they fall asleep,

it's usually for only 10 minutes at a time.

That's because the threat of predators

is always lurking

and a gentle herbivore has to stay alert.

But luckily,

these babies are watching out for each other,

making sure that no nearby wolf is going to get

a two-for-one meal.

(♪♪♪)

Moms come in all stripes, but if you're baby zebra,

you should count your lucky stars

that you get a zebra mother.

All zebra moms are very good moms,

they're very protective.

And you don't wanna get too close to a baby zebra,

'cause mom is going to give you one of those mean kicks.

Baby zebras start to walk just 20 minutes after birth

and after an hour they can run.

That's important, because zebra herds

are always on the move to find food and water.

And if a predator comes around, zebras have to start hoofing it.

They are horses,

they have endurance and they can really run.

Zebras are a tasty treat for cheetahs, hyenas, and lions,

so being bale to take off and run at a moment's notice

will keep these babies alive.

When danger's around,

that whole herd will all take off

at the same time.

All hoof stock has that fight or flight instinct

and generally gonna be a flight thing.

The whole herd gets scared, they're all gonna run.

When danger's close by,

zebras bark or whinny to warn each other.

Their ears are always pricked up

to listen for predators.

And a zebra's eyes sit on the side of its head,

so it can see nearly all the way behind it.

But those aren't a zebra's only secret weapons,

their stripes evolve to help keep them safe.

They group together

and those stripes create a confusing pattern

to predators.

You can tell the younger zebras apart,

because they're born with brown and white stripes,

which darken as they age.

Even though they all look the same to us,

zebra stripes are also how babies can recognize

their moms.

And babies stick close to their moms,

so when the herd takes off they don't get left behind.

Moms and baby zebras have very good bonds,

they're very strongly connected.

Female zebras stay with their herd,

but after two years male zebras break off

to start their own herd as a zebra dad.

Zebra dads are good dads, they are very protective

and nothing else is gonna hurt his herd.

Moms and dads know their babies by a unique smell.

New moms usually keep their babies

away from the herd for a few days

to make sure her baby can recognize her

before they join the rest of the herd.

Zebra parents never adopt an orphan baby,

so if anything happens to its parents,

a young zebra is on its own.

And a baby zebra is an easy target

without a mom to protect it.

They nurture their foals up to two years,

they will not mate again until that foal is ready

to be pushed away from mom.

But before that happens, babies have a lot to learn.

Baby zebras nurse until they are about 8 to 12 months old,

but they also like to nibble on grass, just like mom.

The babies have the advantage here

of being able to learn foraging from their mom.

Besides mom,

baby zebras often spend a lot of time

with their siblings.

Zebras love to chase each other.

Baby zebras are very playful, play is learning, play is good,

play is social.

So it's very important that they are very active.

They're learning those social skills,

but it's a very strong herd impact

and they've got to learn their place in the herd.

Being in a herd has important responsibilities.

In the wild, zebras go on guard duty,

one zebra will watch for predators

while the rest drink from watering holes.

Zebras only sleep when they're in groups,

so there's always others to watch for danger.

Good thing mom is always close by

to keep an eye out,

because baby zebras need lots and lots of sleep.

(♪♪♪)

Ah, so they can make sure

they have the energy to get up and go.

(♪♪♪)

Muskoxen are fearsome-looking Arctic creatures

with masses of shaggy fur, curved horns,

and bony head plates.

They're not animals you wanna get too close to.

Unless you're a baby muskox snuggling up to mom.

Bulldozer is a 6-week-old muskox

and while he may look pretty independent

at this young age,

he's never too far away from mom Tannis.

After all to a predator Bulldozer is fresh meat.

She is proving to be a wonderful mom,

she is very protective of him,

she always has a watchful eye out for him.

She will call for him if you know,

he's just gone out of eyeshot of her.

She is an excellent muskox mom.

Baby muskoxen are born in the spring

after eight and half months' gestation.

He was really just a little black ball of fluff

that couldn't stand for probably two or three hours

just after birth.

But in the wild,

there's no time to wait for the newborns

to get their footing.

And baby muskoxen have to get up and go quickly

and learn from mom how to survive.

Babies are a tasty treat for Arctic predators

like wolves and foxes,

so mothers are always on the lookout for threats.

The mother will typically put herself

between whatever is the threat and the baby

as a defense mechanism.

Mom is Bulldozer's protector

until he can look after himself,

so she chases off anything

that might want to make him a meal.

But adult muskoxen

can be a threat to babies as well,

so Tannis is always watchful of dad Shaner when he's around.

Muskox will show they're dominant to other muskox

by doing something called the head-butt,

so what you'll see is they put their heads down

and literally do a head-butt with that large horn plate.

It's also the muskox's best method

of attack and defense,

so little Bulldozer will have to learn how to do it

if he's going to survive.

Adult muskox males can weigh around 800 pounds,

so they're not a beast you wanna make angry.

One day Bulldozer will grow to that size,

but in the meantime

it's best to keep his distance from dad Shaner.

Muskoxen also have powerful hooves,

which is an important adaptation for life in the high north.

They use these hooves to break through ice

to get to fresh water and to dig through snow

to get to the roots, mosses, and likens they feed on.

But how do they stay warm up north on the tundra?

Muskox have an undercoating

that helps keep them warm in the winter,

which they shed for the summer.

This undercoating is called qiviut

and it's even softer than cashmere.

It is highly valued for sweaters and scarves.

Muskoxen shed their qiviut by rubbing it off

on rocks and trees.

Here at the zoo,

they have a nice rubbing post to use.

Even though Bulldozer won't need to shed his baby qiviut

until the following spring,

mom is making sure he gets the idea for next year.

During his first winter

Bulldozer will be sticking close to his mom

and her thick adult qiviut.

But the layers that help muskoxen survive the winter

can make the summer heat pretty intense,

even after an adult has shed their qiviut.

One of the adaptations you will see with the muskox

in the summer heat is they will just lay down

and stay very quiet and still.

And to stay cool what you'll see

is almost their body moving up and down,

it's kinda like panting like a dog does

that just releases the heat that they're feeling.

Muskoxen can run up to 25 miles an hour,

but they usually prefer to move slowly,

because they can overheat so quickly.

They will even lie down to eat.

It's all typical, very healthy muskox behavior.

Bulldozer is grazing for greenery

like the rest of the herd,

but he's still nursing from time to time.

A muskox when they are nursing

typically go underneath all that fur,

it's hard to even see how they do it,

but they go under and they just toss

with their head to find that nipple.

But little Bulldozer can't nurse forever.

The mother is starting to wean her young muskox,

the behavior is quite often she will walk away,

she will butt him with his head.

She generally is discouraging him from nursing

and going underneath her.

By encouraging Bulldozer

to get most of his food from grazing

rather than nursing,

Tannis is making sure he can get along without her

when he's ready.

That includes showing him the tastiest morsels of food

he can graze on.

During their first winter

baby muskoxen are still very dependent

on their mothers for warmth and protection

even if they're no longer nursing.

Male muskoxen reach adulthood at 3 or 4 years old,

but it isn't until they're 6 or 7

when they start competing with other males

for dominance of a herd.

It's a dramatic scene in the summer

with the male muskoxen charging and head-butting each other.

The younger muskoxen

usually aren't strong enough to compete

and end up being forced out and having to start

their own herds.

But for now young Bulldozer is still safe with mom,

learning the dos and don'ts of how to survive as a muskox.

(♪♪♪)

Staying alive is important when you're a cute little calf

and these bright-eyed beasts hit the ground running.

With mom not always around to save them,

they need to protect themselves until they're big and strong.

These calves need to learn quickly

to stay alive.

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