Taronga Western Plains Zoo has experienced a baby boom in the Addax herd with three calves being born over the past couple of months.

The newest arrivals include two females and one male, whose horns are already starting to come through.

The young calves were all hidden in the long grass or behind rocks in the exhibit for the first couple of weeks of their lives. This is a natural behaviour that Addax adopt in the wild to protect their young from predators.  All three calves are doing well and are visible on exhibit. They can often be spotted sitting together in a crèche-like group while the adults wander to graze and come back regularly to feed their young and check on them.

Addax are critically endangered, sadly a recent survey found only three individual Addax left in the wild. Every birth in zoo-based conservation programs is critical to the long-term survival of this species, which now really only exists in zoos and wildlife parks throughout the world. The success of our breeding program here in Dubbo continues to build the genetic diversity in zoo-based populations.