The Idaho Falls Zoo is proud to announce the newest addition to the zoo family with the birth of a baby Bactrian camel on Saturday May 18.  Visitors to the zoo will also enjoy an extra hour every day to spend with the new arrival beginning Saturday, May 25 with the zoo's new summer hours. 

Starting on Saturday, the zoo will be open from 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. allowing visitors an extra hour each day to enjoy the zoo through Labor Day.

Several new additions have joined the zoo family this season. In April, a plains zebra, Ayana, was born earlier this spring and a few weeks ago the Reeves’ muntjac, a small species of deer, gave birth to a male fawn. Now, the zoo has welcomed another new family member on Saturday, May 18 when Bactrian camel Zasu gave birth to a male calf.

Mom and the calf are in the camel exhibit and doing very well. This is the third calf born to Zasu and dad Gobi.

“It’s always exciting to have new babies at the zoo, both for the staff and for our guests,” says Education Curator Sunny Katseanes. “We knew Zasu was expecting and we were just playing the waiting game until she was ready.” Bactrian camels are pregnant for 13 months.

The calf has not yet been named and the zoo is inviting the public to suggest possible names. Typically, the zoo names new babies according to common names regionally-appropriate to the animals’ native ranges. Bactrian camels are native to Mongolia and northern China so if you have a regional name that you think would suit the new addition, zoo staff encourage you to post it on the zoo’s Facebook or Instagram comments under the camel birth announcement.

“We felt this was a fun way to get the community involved in their zoo,” states Katseanes.

The zoo staff will make the final decision on the calf’s name next week.