Grevy's Zebra Foal, Colton, Born At Saint Louis Zoo: Video

ST. LOUIS, MO — Colton, a male Grevy’s zebra, was born at the Saint Louis Zoo on July 19, the zoo said in a press release. The foal weighed 83 pounds at birth. His mother is 15-year-old Tiombe. His father is 9-year-old father Dewy. As of this week, visitors can see the baby and his mother at the Red Rocks area of the Zoo.

“We are so happy to welcome our ninth Grevy’s zebra foal in 10 years,” said Martha Fischer, the zoo's curator of mammals, ungulates and elephants. “In the last 40 years, the zoo has celebrated 29 births to contribute to the Species Survival Plan for this endangered species.”

The Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Institute Center for Conservation in the Horn of Africa supports conservation of the endangered Grevy’s zebra and other unique species in that region, zoo officials said. Around the same time as Colton’s birth, a Grevy’s zebra was born in the wild in northern Kenya, thanks in part to the zoo's conservation efforts.

In the last 30 years, zoo officials said, the number of wild Grevy’s zebras has dropped sharply, from 15,000 to just 2,800. This species’ survival is threatened by overhunting, habitat loss, food competition with livestock, and most recently, drought. The zoo supports the Grevy’s Zebra Trust — the only organization dedicated solely to the conservation of the Grevy’s zebra.

The Saint Louis Zoo helped to establish the trust in 2007 to address the urgent need to safeguard the species from extinction by engaging communities in its monitoring and protection, the zoo said.

The zoo’s zebras are part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan, a program responsible for maintaining a genetically healthy population of Grevy’s zebras in North American zoos.

Photo by Kari R. Frey/Saint Louis Zoo