As temperatures rise and the snow melts, the first young animals have been born in the farmyard at Naszym Zoo. The spring baby boom was started by Hulda, a Husum protest pig, who gave birth to two piglets. (This is quite an unusually small litter, but how joyful it is.)
She was followed by Rita, a Pomeranian sheep, who gave birth to twins that, as is typical of this breed, are proverbial black sheep during the first months of their lives. Meanwhile, on February 16, the first kid was born. Under the watchful eye of his mother, Magda, a Thuringian Forest goat, the little one is already frolicking in the farmyard.
But that is not the end: more youngsters are expected soon, not only in the farmyard but also in the Tibetan village, where cashmere goats and Tibetan pigs currently live in an advanced state of pregnancy. “These are not all the signs of spring: our Alpine ibexes look as if they have been plucked,” say employees of Naszym Zoo. “These animals are moulting, which is an old and reliable sign that spring is approaching.”
