Three of the five jackal pups born at Shanghai Zoo investigate their new home.(Photo/Shanghai Daily)
Five jackal pups, two giant pandas and a hippo calf (not in a pear tree) will make their debuts at Shanghai Zoo on Sunday.
Two months on from their arrival in late February, officials said they have high hopes for the litter of three female and two male black-backed jackal pups, as they are the first to be born in captivity at the zoo and also survive beyond their first few days.
Previous efforts to breed from four adult jackals introduced to the zoo in 2013 ended in failure. Several pups were stillborn, while the others were killed by adult members of their own pack, the zoo said.
The animal park celebrated another milestone last month, with the arrival on March 31 of the first hippo to be born there for more than a decade.
The calf spent his first few weeks of life in an indoor pen with his mother — 14-year-old Xiao Dongxi — but on Sunday will make his first foray outdoors, where he will also meet his 27-year-old father, Ben, for the first time.
The calf has yet to be given a name, but the zoo said it is planning to launch a competition next month to get suggestions from the public.
The final two beasts scheduled to make their debuts on May Day are giant pandas Xing Er and Ya Er.
The males, both of which are 30 months old, arrived at the zoo from a breeding and conservation reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province on April 16.
Despite being a little unsure of themselves at first, the bears have settled in well over the past two weeks and are now ready to meet the public, said their keeper Tang Pinggui.
