Baby Boom!

Talk about cute overload! Spring brought a whole crop of baby animals to the Queens Zoo. Visitors can watch duckling swimming lessons in the Marsh, then head to the Farm to visit lambs and alpacas.

Tremina and Peanut are two adorable alpacas that have recently arrived on the Farm. These two gals are easy to distinguish from their llamas that share their digs because of their small size; llamas can be nearly twice as big as alpacas. Tremina and Peanut spend their days exploring their new home, grazing on grains and hay, and people-watching.

Nearby, two Jacob’s four-horned lambs born in June are nuzzled close to their mothers. With their plush coats, the male and female babies, Oliver and Willow, look like cottonballs on legs. Jacob’s sheep are currently listed as threatened by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, meaning that fewer than 1,000 are registered annually in the U.S. The Queens Zoo acquired the Jacob’s sheep earlier this year as part of a cooperative breeding program designed to help increase the population and raise public awareness of this rare breed.

The zoo’s Marsh Area is looking ducky these days. More than a dozen new pintail and teal ducklings have hatched. These colorful waterbirds can be seen in the zoo’s pond swimming beside trumpeter swans, ring-neck and ruddy ducks.

Visit us soon to check out these sweet young things firsthand, and observe how different zoo parents nurture their offspring.

Updated: 6/25/2009