EDMONTON – With Edmonton’s unusually warm winter extending into spring, many residents of Alberta’s capital headed out to the Valley Zoo over the Easter long weekend, where some young goat-antelopes are getting a lot of attention these days.
Just last week, the zoo welcomed three baby Sichuan takins to its facility – the animals are considered a national treasure in China and, like panda bears, are native to steep mountain forests.
“These are quite a rare species,” Dean Treichel, the Edmonton Valley Zoo’s operations supervisor, said Monday. “There are very few of them actually on display in zoos worldwide.”
According to Treichel, the species is threatened by poaching activity and the destruction of its habitat in China, Tibet and Burma.
All three takin boys, or kids, were born last month and zoo officials expect them to weigh over 400 kilograms in the next three years.
About 2,000 people passed through the Edmonton Valley Zoo’s gates on Easter Monday.