On July 16, 2019, Oki, Golden Takin at Tama Zoo, gave birth to a male offspring. Since the day before was Marine Day, we thought a name related to the sea would be nice, so we named him Hama.

Up until now, Takin the caretaker had seen give birth in January or February. Takin, which live in high mountains, are very resistant to cold. That being said, the cold is still harsh for newborns, and the first few days until they are fully grown require careful attention, but this time we didn't have to worry about the cold. However, Hama is the first takin born in July.

Hama sleeping with her mother, Oki, with her legs stretched out (September 4, 2019)		Hama climbing a rock (September 29, 2019)

On July 24th, when she was nine days old, Hama went out into the enclosure for the first time with Oki. Since then, she has been spending time in the enclosure with the other Takin. Up until now, baby Takin have made their debut in the enclosure in early spring and have always stayed with their mothers until they grew to a certain size. However, perhaps because of the warmer season, Hama seemed to start spending time away from her mother earlier. She was also sometimes seen sleeping with her legs stretched out in the enclosure. I was surprised because I had never seen her sleeping like that with the other takins.

On December 6th, at 144 days old, we first saw the tips of Hama's horns peeking out from between his fur. Lately, he's often been seen butting heads with his father, Ten, to test his strength. Even amidst Hama's childlike behavior as he takes on the larger Ten, we can now see glimpses of the strength of a male.

With Hama's arrival, Takin enclosure has grown into a large family of four males and five females. Meeting each Takin, each with its own unique combination of sex and age, has been a valuable and appreciated experience for the staff.


Renovated Takin enclosure
Takin love to rub their bodies and horns against the retaining wood in their enclosure. With so many of them rubbing their large bodies against the wood, even thick pieces of wood gradually wear down. Also, because the wood is exposed to the elements year-round, it was getting quite damaged. For this reason, we carried out maintenance work on both enclosures in November. All of the retaining wood was replaced, but since it was difficult to find many large pieces of wood like the ones that had been used before, we decided to use railway sleepers as the new retaining wood. The sleepers are made of hard wood species and are treated with preservatives, so they are very strong. In addition, with the care of Takin' hooves in mind, we increased the amount of concrete surface so that their hooves would be worn down a little as they walked. The surface was then roughened by making grooves with a bamboo broom.

In the newly renovated enclosure, Takin are once again rubbing their bodies against the new retaining wall made of wooden sleepers, seemingly enjoying themselves.

[Hatsue Namaizawa, Animal Care and Exhibition Staff, South Tama Zoo]

(December 20, 2019)