PREVIEW

Brookfield Zoo Chicago recently welcomed several new animals, including emus, a female sloth bear, and a puggle—a baby short-beaked echidna.


The Zoo is happy to announce the addition of a puggle—a short-beaked echidna baby—hatched on June 9. The echidna is one of only two mammals that lay eggs (the duck-billed platypus is the other). Currently the puggle is behind the scenes in a nestbox and bonding and receiving nourishment from its mother. This is only the second echidna to hatch at Brookfield Zoo Chicago. Waddles, the puggle’s 49-year-old mother, and Pokey, the 49-year-old sire, produced the first puggle in 2022. Since its hatching, animal care staff has been closely monitoring the puggle to ensure it is developing normally and weigh it frequently to make certain it is nursing from its mother. Once the puggle emerges from the nestbox, which will be sometime in late fall, guests will be able to see it at the Zoo’s Australia House.



In late June, the Zoo received three 3-month-old emus. Since their arrival, the one male and two females have been getting acclimated to their outdoor habitat and yard mates—the kangaroos—at Australia House.

Emus are flightless and the second largest bird in the world. When hatched, emu chicks are about 5 inches tall, and when full grown, they can reach just over 6 feet tall. To help camouflage them, emu chicks have distinctive cream and brown diagonal stripes that fade when they are about 3 months old. These stripes recently faded on the young chicks at the Zoo.

Emus grow very fast—in the past month, the birds at the Zoo have gained about 25 percent of their body weight. They can also be quite fast, and have been known to sprint at 30 miles per hour.

Earlier this spring, the Zoo welcomed Lila (pronounced Lee-la), a 2-year-old sloth bear. After getting acclimated to the animal care staff and her behind-the-scenes area, she was introduced to an outdoor habitat by herself. And just recently, she met her new mate, Kartik, the Zoo’s 15-year-old male sloth bear. They can now both be seen together outdoors along the Big Cat walkway.

Lila’s transfer to Brookfield Zoo Chicago was based on a recommendation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) Sloth Bear Species Survival Plan (SSP). An SSP is a cooperative population management and conservation program for select species. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), the species is listed as vulnerable. Found in India, the southern lowlands of Nepal, and Sri Lanka, the sloth bear population is decreasing due in large part to poaching and habitat loss.