Seven painted dog puppies were born at Brookfield Zoo in mid-January, the zoo announced Friday.
The puppies are still bonding with first-time mom Ngala and won’t have access to their outdoor habitat until mid-spring, but the zoo has a video loop of the newborns playing on its social media pages and on its website.
“The births are a welcomed addition to Brookfield Zoo,” said Joan Daniels, curator of mammals for the Chicago Zoological Society. “We hope when the puppies can be seen this spring, guests will become inspired to learn more about painted dogs and the plight their counterparts face in Africa.”
Painted dogs are one of Africa’s most endangered predators, having disappeared from much of their former habitats mostly because of habitat fragmentation, conflict with human activities and diseases, the zoo said in a news release.
Brookfield Zoo was one of eight zoos to receive a breeding recommendation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ African Painted Dog Species Survival Plan, according to the news release.
Despite their name, African painted dogs aren’t closely related to domesticated dogs and are a true wild dog species. They weigh between 40 and 75 pounds when fully grown. At birth, the puppies have a black and white coat that begins to change to a distinctively patterned coat of black, tan, dark brown and white at about a month old. Like a human fingerprint, no two dogs’ coats are exactly the same.
Puppies are weaned around 10 weeks of age and stay in the den for about three months, when they begin to run with the pack and become strong hunters around at about 1 year old.
The Brookfield Zoo puppies will receive their first round of inoculations in March, at which point the veterinary staff will also perform exams and determine the sex of each puppy. Names haven’t been decided yet.
