Moncton’s Magnetic Hill Zoo is back open for business and visitors will see a few new faces this season.
The zoo is experiencing a baby boom after a long, cold winter.
“Right now we're a little bit busier than usual,” says animal care foreman Jamie Carson.
“We have more primates right now having given birth than we normally do this time of year, so we're expecting a pretty high year. We've always had pretty good luck breeding primates here at Magnetic Hill.”
Zoo workers say the new baby squirrel monkeys, baby marmosets, and baby lemurs are sure to be crowd favourites.
“We've got a good little troop of squirrel monkeys going and we're working on building up our lemur troop,” says Magnetic Hill Zoo general manager Bruce Dougan. “They're always popular, no question about that.”
Judging by the gleam in jaguar Rio’s eye, there is also the possibility of new jaguars.
“Our male jaguar is just at the age where he should know what's going on, should be able to figure it out, so we're hoping to have baby jaguars soon,” says Carson.
In addition to the new arrivals, new enclosures offer more space for the animals and better viewing opportunities for visitors.
“We're going to build a new multi-species guinea pig exhibit. The kids, the young kids, the toddlers three to five, love the guinea pigs better than any other animal here at the zoo,” says Dougan.
There are still two animals that have yet to be introduced to the public. Two Amur tigers acquired over the winter are still getting to know their surroundings and each other.
“We're planning on addressing that starting tomorrow,” says Dougan. “We're going to start moving some animals around in hopes that we can get some mixing done and maybe have one or both of the tigers on display this weekend.”
The zoo is celebrating its Easter Extravaganza this weekend, complete with face painting and an Easter Egg Hunt.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Jonathan MacInnis
