January 24, 2012
Our thirteen year old Coquerel’s sifaka female, Pia, has became the first sifaka to deliver an infant this nascent 2012 birth season (a total of four sifaka females were pronounced pregnant by our Vet Staff). She gave birth to a female weighing 103 grams, in the early morning hours of January 7th. The infant’s sire is the 18 year old Jovian (star of PBS’s Zaboomafoo). Infant and mom are doing well! This is the sixth year in a row that Pia has successfully given birth, all infants have been sired by Jovian, and all six are alive and well (four continue to live in their family group, while two have been removed and paired up elsewhere with genetically matched sifaka of the opposite sex). Pia continues to buck the reproductive trend of one sifaka female infant birth for every two males born, as four of her six infants have been female. Keep up the good work, Pia and Jovian!
