A Taiwanese serow that Taiwan gave to a Chinese forest park last year had a healthy female kid on Tuesday last week, the Taipei Zoo said.
This was the second time that the female serow, named Le Yangyang (樂羊羊), has given birth since Taiwan gave her and a male serow to Liugongdao National Forest Park in China’s Shandong Province in April last year. The gift of the bovids, also known as Formosan serows, followed China giving Taiwan a pair of pandas in 2009.
Le Yangyang delivered a male kid in January, but it died five days after birth.
Photo: Chiu Shao-wen, Taipei Times
This time, the newborn female serow successfully stood up on her own two hours after being born and was breastfed for the first time two hours after that, a statement issued by the Taipei Zoo said.
Yu Chen-fang (余珍芳), director of the Taipei Zoo’s veterinary division, flew to Shandong last week to help Chinese vets take care of the newborn animal, named Meimei (美美).
The baby serow weighed 2.12kg and measured 28cm tall and 53cm long at birth, according to the statement.
Taiwanese serows, sometimes described as goat-antelopes and a species endemic to Taiwan, are listed as an endangered species. A female serow’s pregnancy usually lasts between five and six months.
A pair of Formosan sika deer were also shipped to Shandong with the serows last year and have given birth to two fawns, one male and one female.
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