North Carolina Zoo

Too cute for words. Kind of hard to imagine them growing into cougars:

The North Carolina Zoo posted a terrific video: the resident polar bear enjoys a paddle.

(The zoo is currently closed due to the cold conditions.)

Baby gorillas Bomassa and Apollo, who were born at the North Carolina Zoo, have reached a milestone: their first birthdays. 

UPDATE: The North Carolina Zoo announced on Wednesday that the baby gorilla born to mother Acacia has died. They say that the cause is uncertain, although it is possible that the mother may have accidentally rolled over onto the the infant in her sleep.

Who says animals can’t participate in an Easter egg hunt? This weekend, while thousands of children across the state hunt for candy-filled Easter eggs, the North Carolina Zoo will give its animals their own egg hunt.

The “Egg-Stravaganza” begins Saturday morning, and it involves zookeepers putting papier-mâché eggs filled with animal treats inside the animals' living spaces. Some of the lucky creatures that will be getting eggs include gorillas, elephants, ocelots, Red River hogs, seals, bears, and a cougar.

The North Carolina Zoo has partnered with five other leading conservation organizations from around the world to launch a new software tool aimed at curbing poaching in nature preserves.

The software is called Spatial Monitoring And Reporting Tool (SMART 1.0), and it is intended to assist park rangers and wildlife managers by helping them measure and evaluate the effectiveness of their anti-poaching efforts. Poaching is a major threat to several endangered species, including tigers, rhinos, elephants, great apes, and marine turtles.  Traditional methods of combating poaching are not making a dent in the illegal practice, and there is a growing gap between the sophistication of poachers and the skill level of the law enforcement patrols trying to stop them.  SMART is open-source and free for any organization or individual to download.

On Valentine’s Day, the North Carolina Zoo announced that one of its three female gorillas is expecting a baby. If the pregnancy is successful, this will be the third baby gorilla born at the State Zoo in less than a year.  The two other female gorillas both gave birth last August.

Keepers  at the North Carolina Zoo used a snow-making machine to fill a cougar's habitat with snow on Tuesday. With temperatures not expected to get out of the 30's, zoo visitors can expect to see the exhibit snow for several days.

The non-profit LandTrust of Central North Carolina is teaming up with the North Carolina Zoo to preserve a unique tract of Longleaf Pine Forest. The 113-acre tract in Montgomery County is a rarity for this type of growth in the Piedmont. The land has been preserved by private owners for more than a century. Crystal Cockman is a conversation specialist with LandTrust.

The North Carolina Zoo is leading an emergency fundraising effort for the Tripoli Zoo in war-torn Libya. Political chaos there has left zoo keepers without money to buy food for the animals, and they have only a week's supply on hand. North Carolina Zoo Director David Jones has led similar international fundraising efforts for zoos in Afghanistan and Iraq. He says he's happy to help Libya's main zoo as well.