Disney World is experiencing a baby boom. More than 300 animals have been born this year so far at the resort.
Along with more than 150 birds, the types of baby animals Disney has welcomed range from zebras and white “Cinderella” ponies to aquatic animals at The Seas With Nemo & Friends attraction at Epcot. There are also new cuttlefish and an eagle ray pup as well as baby aardvarks and a red river hog piglet.
Disney said these new additions to the more than 5,000 animals who reside there “help keep animal populations healthy and ensure their survival.” Many of the animals born this year are part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plans to help grow populations and educate humans about the importance of threatened and endangered species.
One of the most exciting additions was the arrival of Pixie, a pure white Shetland pony who will one day help pull Disney’s Cinderella carriage.
Pixie was born in July to mom Lady, and was the third Shetland pony born at the Tri-Circle-D Ranch this year. Sprout and Finn were also born this year in the spring.
It’s been a particularly exciting year of new babies at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in April.
The wildlife-focused park welcomed two Hartmann’s mountain zebras at the park’s Kilimanjaro Safaris. Cricket and Dot were born just six days apart.
Disney said Cricket loves the water and splashing around in puddles, while Dot can be seen exerting “zoomies” around the savanna.
Over at the park’s Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail, you can see mom Pearl and her new daughter, Penny — yellow-backed duikers, small forest-dwelling antelopes found in Central and West Africa.
Baby Penny was born in the spring and just made her debut after spending a few months backstage bonding with her mom.
Over in the Discovery Island habitat, there’s a pair of cotton-top tamarin twins who Disney said have been guest favorites since the day they were born. Born in June, the babies are now a little bit bigger than the palm of a human hand and are starting to venture around the habitat without mom and dad.
Cotton-top tamarins are critically endangered, and the arrival of these two doubled the population at Animal Kingdom. When they were born, they weighed about as much as a chicken egg and were 4 inches long.
These are the first cotton-top tamarins born at Disney World since 2001.
And just last month, the park saw the birth of a pint-sized baby mandrill named Saffron. She weighed less than 3 pounds when she was born, but grow up to 25 pounds in a few years as a member of the largest species of monkeys in the world.
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