ust in time for Mother’s Day! Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden announces the birth of two African crested porcupines and four prairie dogs.
The boy and girl porcupettes were born on April 30th of 2017 and are the fourth and fifth births of the zoo’s adult pair since arriving at Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden in 2013. Both babies, mom and dad can be seen on exhibit in the Children’s Enchanted Forest area. The babies are named “June Bug†and “Sneedy†in memory of Zookeeper, Junius Sneed.
African crested porcupines are the largest rodent in Africa. Their primary diet in the wild is roots, tubers and fallen fruit. They can have 1 to 4 young per litter and their quills are soft at birth and harden soon after.
Four pups recently began to pop out of the burrows within the prairie dog exhibit in North America. The pups birth date is unknown, but estimated to have been in early March as they typically do not make an appearance outside of the burrow until they are six weeks old. Black-tailed prairie dogs live in what are called towns or colonies with complex, widespread underground burrow systems.
