Singapore wildlife parks welcomed close to 1,000 newborns in 2024

It was a huge bundle of joy for Mandai Wildlife Reserve in 2024 as it welcomed 998 baby animals across its parks.

- Elaine Lee

The bumper births surpassed 2023's 970 newborns, which was then the highest number of babies the wildlife parks had collectively produced since 2013.

Among the new additions were 34 species listed as threatened under the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, Mandai Wildlife Group (MWG) said on March 27.

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One of them was a proboscis monkey named Putri. Wild populations of the species are declining due to habitat loss from deforestation for timber and oil palm plantations.

Putri, whose name means "princess" in the Malay and Indonesian languages, is the second offspring to parents Malaka and Jeff. She can often be seen playing with her brother Bayu or clinging to her mother at the proboscis monkey habitat.

Of the 143 species that gave birth in 2024, 23 are part of internationally managed breeding programmes such as the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria's Ex-situ Programme.

The arrival of five slender-tailed meerkat pups — two residing at the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia and the other three at Wild Africa marks the first births of the species since 2019, said MWG.

Adding to the list of crowd charmers is a female Linne's two-toed sloth named Hope and three oriental small-clawed otters.

Another highlight was the arrival of two Goeldi's monkeys — the first infants in nine years — along with four ring-tailed lemurs and two emperor tamarins.