Baby manatees and their parents enjoy a "Children's Day 61" cake. Photo by Lu Shaolong
Zhuhai, May 31 (Xu Qingqing, Lin Jie) In order to celebrate "Children's Day" for the country's first rare West African manatee baby "Bill", who was successfully bred last year, on May 31, the breeders of Zhuhai Chimelong Ocean Kingdom specially presented it with a three-layer high "vegan" giant Children's Day cake, and the little manatee "Bill" ate "very happy". It is reported that the little West African manatee has just turned one year old and has grown from 25 kilograms at birth to more than 200 kilograms.
The keeper feeds the "cake" to the baby manatee in the water. Photo by Lu Shaolong
According to Zhuhai Chimelong marine animal expert Zhong Yifu, the manatee is also known as the "mermaid". At present, the world's three species of manatees, Amazon manatees, West Indian manatees and West African manatees, were listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2012, of which west African manatees were listed as "vulnerable" species. The West African manatee has become recognized as a world problem due to its low estrus and a gestation period of up to 13 months. In May last year, the male manatee baby "Bill" was successfully born in Zhuhai Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, which was the first case in China.
Family portrait of the manatee of Zhuhai Chimelong Ocean Kingdom. Photo by Lu Shaolong
Zhong Yifu said that "Bill" has not been a simple foodie baby since he was a child. When I was born, I drank milk an average of 60-70 times a day, and now I have slowly entered the stage of milk withdrawal, eating more than 30 kilograms of lettuce, oil wheat vegetables, spinach, eggplant, loofah, dates, kelp and other nutritious vegetables and fruits every day, equivalent to 10% of my own weight, and have successfully grown to 209kg at the age of 1, and my body length has grown to 215cm. Adult West African manatees weigh more than 1 ton.
"Zhuhai Chimelong has successfully mastered the method of breaking through the breeding problem of low fertility of West African manatees, and will usher in the country's largest newborn West African manatee display population." According to Zhong Yifu, at present, Zhuhai Chimelong has found and confirmed that two West African manatee mothers have successfully become pregnant and will give birth in June and September this year. (End)