HOUSTON – Human babies get birth announcements all the time, so why not animals? The Houston Zoo is going hog wild with several birth announcements this week.
Two of the babies are members of the red river hog family. They were born on Tuesday to parents Luna and Neptune. The piglets are the first red river hogs to be born in the Houston Zoo. They are just a few days old, so the zoo is still working on names for the precious pair.
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The zoo points out the piglets don't look like their parents, and there's a reason for that. Instead of having a solid red color on their entire body, they are a brownish color with white stripes along their bodies. This coloration is camouflage, and it helps them blend into their forested surroundings to hide from any lurking predators. These stripes will fade and turn into the vibrant red color when they are about six months old.
This week, the zoo also announced the birth of a baby from a different kind of hog family. Gus is a baby warthog. He was born May 6 to parents Akoko and Lenny. He is the first warthog piglet for the Houston Zoo in nearly 10 years. The zoo said Gus is known for being the official wild bird chaser of the warthog habitat.
Just like human babies, Gus' appearance will change as he grows older. One obvious difference in the coming years will be two protrusions from each side of his face. Those are warts, the namesake of the warthog. The warts become very important for warthogs as the become adults. During breeding season, male warthogs will compete with one another by sparring. The males will charge one another and meet face-to-face with their tusks. The warts help protect their eyes from the damage their opponent's tusks could do to them during these sparring sessions.
The zoo encourages Houstonians to visit all the new additions. The red river hog piglets are in the African Forest at the zoo. Gus the warthog lives in the Warthog Habitat.
