The Nashville Zoo welcomed some tiny new additions after its first-ever aardvark calf was born at the facility on New Year’s Day.
On Monday, the Nashville Zoo announced the birth of a baby aardvark — called a calf — that weighed approximately four pounds and was described as being “roughly the size of a rolling pin.” Aardvark births in zoos are rare — the last aardvark born in a zoo was born in 2024.
The calf is the offspring of two of the zoo’s aardvarks, named Winsol and Karanga.
According to the park, Karanga — the calf’s mother — and the baby are both doing well.
“Karanga and the calf are doing well and are being closely monitored by our animal care team in a behind-the-scenes area,” the park said in a Facebook post.
There are only 33 aardvarks living in American Zoological Association-accredited zoos. The calf is the 34th aardvark in an AZA-accredited zoo, and the first to be born since 2024.
Aardvarks living in zoos allow researchers the opportunity to study the often elusive animals.
“In the wild, aardvarks are difficult to study because they are a nocturnal, burrowing species,” Nashville Zoo’s Curator of Behavioral Husbandry Jac Menish said in a statement to The Tennessean.
Menish said the calf’s parents are both “ambassador animals” at the zoo, meaning they have a “lot of keeper interaction, including hands-on care and leash training.”
“This has allowed us to gather valuable information about their breeding behaviors and pregnancy,” he said. “Periodic ultrasounds were conducted once the pregnancy was confirmed, and our keeper team began a nonstop baby watch to observe signs of labor and delivery.”
It’s currently unclear if the baby aardvark will ultimately stay at the zoo or be transferred to another facility. According to the Tennessean, zoo officials said the aardvark will likely eventually be moved to another facility to pair with a mate to support further growth among the aardvark population.
