Community Corner

Detroit Zoo Welcomes Baby Aardvark Roxaane

Newest member of the family will make her public debut in the spring.

visitors have a great reason to be excited as a new baby aardvark will make her first public appearance in the spring.

Roxaane – spelled with two a's, like in aardvark – was born Jan. 8, weighing less than 4 pounds. She has since quadrupled in size. According to the zoo, mature aardvarks can weigh from 90-145 pounds and grow 5-6 feet long.

She is in seclusion now with her mother, but as soon as it is warm enough she will join her 6-year-old mother, Rachaael; 7-year-old father, Mchimbaii; and 2-year-old sister, Amani in the African Grasslands habitat. The family will join Erdferkel, the other aardvark at the zoo.

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The Detroit Zoological Society veterinarians and zookeepers are monitoring the mother and baby aardvarks closely. “Aardvarks are small, hairless and fragile at birth, and aardvark mothers are sometimes clumsy and can accidentally injure their little ones,” according to a zoo statement.

The Detroit Zoo is open daily 10 a.m.-4 p.m. November through March and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. April through Labor.  Admission is $12 for adults 15-61; $10 for senior citizens 62 and older and $8 for children ages 2-14, children under 2 are free. 

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