They’re back! They’re really back!
After being lost to us since early
December, we finally stumbled upon
the Happy Zebra den on February 26th, and man, we were three ecstatic humans that day. We christened it Houdini Den,
to pay homage to their greatest disappearing act. Really, it’s no wonder we
couldn’t find them sooner - the den is out in the middle of a grass field,
almost 700 meters away from the nearest path.
We are beyond overjoyed to have our third clan back, and seeing
them there, actually at the den, every time we arrive is such a relief!
Many of the cubs have changed drastically during their Lost
Period, growing from small, barely spotted little guys to fluffy, lanky “preteen”
hyenas!
Rummy girl is growing up!
And to our absolute delight, there were several new faces at the den! We’re still waiting to see some females nurse to confirm maternity of many of our newbies, but for now, we’ve got some pretty cute cub names (well, we think so anyway).
"Stix" and "Vincent" love both cuddling and sleeping. "Stix" even tends to sleep during egg trials. I'm not sure I've ever seen a hyena choose a nap over food before.
(mother is still unknown)
Harriet Tubman, or "Tubs" as we like to call him, seems to be best buds with "Stix" and "Vincent".
(mom is Shangri-La)
Mandrake (left) and O'Malley (right) are our youngest cubs; Mandrake has taken to running laps around the den and running through the other cubs, rather than around them.
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| Pic credit: Erin Person |
Besides being amazingly adorable, the cubs at Houdini Den
have been very cooperative chewers and all readily participate in egg and milk trials. I'm tempted to say even though we've only had them back for less than a month, they've provided some of the best data to date.
Cute, productive, and findable?! I’d
say we discovered the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (why yes, I was going for cheesy with that one - Happy St. Patrick’s Day!).
:) I'm glad you guys have found Happy Zebra again. I missed those fluff-balls.
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