Bulletin From the Barn: August 14, 2009
Baby Anteater Update From Keeper Marie Magnuson
Maripi and Cyrano are having a wonderful summer. Cyrano now weighs about 25 pounds and he is all anteater! He is spending more and more time on his own four feet rather than riding on his mother’s back. With the temperatures over 90 degrees most days, Maripi really appreciates it too. Giant anteaters have a coat that is very coarse and made to shed water rather than retain heat. There is no under coat like dogs and cats have to act as insulation. Even so, when it’s hot, it has to be tiresome to tote around a warm-blooded baby on your back all day!
Mmmmango
The keepers have been putting lots of small pieces of mango around the yard for Cyrano to find. Just like his father Dante, Cyrano LOVES mango. He trots around the yard using his keen sense of smell to locate it and then mashes the mango up with his claws so he can eat it. This keeps him occupied and gives his mother some much-needed alone time.
A Nice Soak
A couple of days ago she took advantage of the opportunity to go into the pond and have a nice soak in the cool water. Have you seen the 
video of Maripi and Cyrano bathing? From Maripi’s point of view, this was even better than an inside bath since she didn’t have her son on her back and was able to roll all the way over in the water and then scrub her back with the claws on her front feet. She kept it up for about 20 minutes and when she was done she must have felt like a new anteater!
An Expanded Menu
Cyrano is eating more than just mango. Like all mammal mothers Maripi fed her baby with her milk at first. Now that he is getting to be a big boy, he is starting to eat solid food as well. Baby anteaters learn what to eat by licking their mother’s snout and tasting and smelling the crumbs there.
Cyrano has always enjoyed digging for ants and ripping apart logs but now he eats the insectivore diet that his parents eat. It’s made just for insect-eating animals like anteaters and has lots of fat, protein, and fiber, just like insects do. And of course he loves the mangoes! Eventually he will probably eat all the different things that our anteaters enjoy, like banana, Jell-O, soy yogurt, seedless watermelon, pears, frozen juice, and Maripi's favorite, peanut butter. We will continue to monitor his weight and Maripi’s very closely to make sure that everybody is getting plenty to eat.
Cyrano Is an Uncle!
Many people have asked for an update on Maripi and Dante’s first baby, Aurora. As you may know she left here for Nashville Zoo, which loaned the giant anteaters to us. There she was introduced to a young male named Gabe and they went to ZooParc de Beauval in France. A few months ago, Aurora had a baby girl, who is being hand-raised there. The baby is doing very well and she is a great favorite of the keepers there. The ZooParc has a program similar to the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of America, and through this program a child named the baby “Fidji.” Congratulations to Aurora, Gabe, and the ZooParc du Beauval!
I hope everyone is having a great summer and that you can come and see Cyrano some time!
