Baby animals highlight zoo preservation efforts in Kansas

Visitors can’t resist 2-month-old lion cubs.

Especially when there are five of them.

The cubs – with their fluffy coats; brown, spotty heads; and bluish-gray eyes – made their first public appearance in front of about 50 people at the Lee Richardson Zoo in Garden City earlier this week.

“There was quite a pack” of people, said the zoo’s director, Kristi Newland. “I think folks will be a little more likely to pop in.”

Baby animals can attract more visitors because of the cute factor, Newland said. But zoos say the primary importance of breeding programs and baby animals is in aiding the preservation efforts of endangered or threatened species.

The public helped name the five lion cubs.

More than 580 votes were cast for the names, with Kito, Bahati, Usiku and Jasiri the winning selections for the males. The female’s name, Lulu, was chosen by the lion who fathered the cubs (he chose one box out of three possibilities).

“If you get to help name them, it gives a little ownership and a little more interest,” Newland said.

The Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita also used a naming contest for Natasha and Tsar, the Amur tiger cubs that turned 2 this week.

The reveal of the tiger cubs attracted thousand of visitors when they appeared on exhibit, said Melissa Graham, a spokeswoman for the Sedgwick County Zoo.

Anytime there’s a new baby, Graham said, the zoo sees at least some increase in attendance.

“There’s interest, for sure,” she said. “I don’t know that it’s a huge jump in attendance, like opening a new exhibit. We definitely have interest, and people are excited.”

Most of the zoos in Kansas breed animals through the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Species Survival Plan, which aims to manage threatened or endangered species by breeding healthy and genetically diverse populations of animals. The association’s program sometimes runs parallel with programs from the Zoological Association of America

“All these animals are ambassadors for their wild counterparts,” said Alan Sironen, a member of the Zoological Association of America’s board of directors. “People who come and see these animals ... learn about the breeding programs, and they have empathy and concern for these animals.”

Concern – especially for the latest, cutest newborn – translates to donations, Sironen said, which fund preservation efforts of animals in the wild, such as cheetahs, Amur leopards or black rhinos.

Tanganyika Wildlife Park near Goddard has about 34 breeding programs, with at least two dozen large cats born each year, said assistant director Matt Fouts. It is accredited by the Zoological Association of America.

“Because we have the nursery, it’s definitely a benefit of coming to the park, getting to see those babies,” Fouts said. “Those are a big deal.”

The baby animals don’t tend to draw the bigger crowds to Tanganyika, he said, but they are pure entertainment.

The young leopards resemble house cats, and visitors get a kick out of baby lemurs clinging to their mothers’ backs, Fouts said.

“People are just fascinated with babies in general,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re human or animals.

“For us, it’s not a matter of attendance. It’s important from a preservation standpoint. If we get people, great. If not, that’s OK, too.”

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 7:39 PM with the headline "Baby animals highlight zoo preservation efforts in Kansas ."