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IT WAS A DAZZLING sun-drenched day at the Queens Wildlife Center, better known as the Queens Zoo.
A light brown male prairie dog, looking much like a squirrel and sounding much like a dog, leaped and loped through the sun-baked lawn, then lay down to nap, while 10 babies nursed on three mothers and cavorted with their cohorts.
Suddenly, an anonymous visitor approached with a stick. Striking it against the Plexiglas enclosure, he made a loud, lashing sound that snapped the rodent out of his slumber and into high alert. Acting as a sentry, the black-tailed creature stood up tall, sniffed and surveyed his surroundings. When the noise subsided and he decided his skin was saved, he rewarded his labor with a lunch of grass ... lest there be yet another whiplash on the horizon.
The prairie dogs and some other four-legged parents may have to bear some rude intrusions these days as visitors converge on the zoo to view the newborn animal babies. For this year, more than any other, the Flushing facility has witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of births, a calculated outgrowth of a breeding plan to renew the zoo's animal collection and reproduce certain species for other zoos.
In addition to the 10 baby prairie dogs, the new arrivals include a Haflinger horse, three pygmy goats, two bisons and a lynx - the first such bobcat born in captivity in North America in five years.
"This has been a big year for us," declared Robin Dalton, director of the zoo. "For a zoo as small as ours to have such a baby boom is really unique. We made space available and did whatever we could to make it conducive for them to reproduce, but if they had not cooperated, nothing would have happened. This year we were in luck; they cooperated," said Dalton, whose love for the animals is not only palpable but mutual.
Like people, some animals are simply not attracted to each other and therefore will not mate. To foster reproduction, zoos transport the dissenters to other facilities to mate with potentially more compatible denizens.
"Sometimes they live in one zoo for years and don't have babies. As soon as they get sent someplace else, they start having babies,"...