National Zoo’s New Baby Gazelle Runs Around the Yard
by Benjamin R. Freed
The Smithsonian’s National Zoo is showing off its newest specimen this week, and guess what? It’s freaking adorable. A female gazelle
calf that was born October 13 debuted to the public on Wednesday, and is already running around the yard with its siblings.
The calf, which does not yet have a name, joined the other gazelles in the mixed species exhibit at the zoo’s Cheetah Conservation Station. Along with gazelles, the exhibit also houses Ruppell’s griffon vultures and two male scimitar-horned oryx. The new gazelle’s mother is three-year-old Zafirah. It was sired by male gazelle Raul, who also fathered a male calf born September 4. Player.
Dama gazelles are one of the most critically endangered species, with fewer than 500 specimens remaining in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
And, oh yeah, as a bonus the zoo also has this video of the male calf running and stouting—a bouncy gait in which all four legs lift up from the ground—around the yard.
(via and see video at: The DCist) (images: Smithsonian National Zoo)
