‍May 21, 2025 

ZooWorld Zoological Park is thrilled to announce the birth of two rare aardwolf pups. This extraordinary event marks a major milestone in animal conservation and demonstrates their commitment to preserving species.  The two pups were born in early April of 2025 to parents, “Oya” & “Shango” who have lived at ZooWorld for almost 3 years.  ZooWorld’s animal care and leadership teams have been monitoring the progress of these special babies and their parents round the clock via remote den cameras.  This birth is extra special because it is a first for ZooWorld and the first U.S. birth of the species since the early 1980’s.

“We could not be more excited to finally make this announcement and we fully realize the significance of it. It has been our top priority to ensure the aardwolf family has had ample time to bond and that both the pups and the parents were thriving before we shared this exciting news.” said Kayte Hogan, ZooWorld’s CEO.

The zoo is happy to report that the pups have been doing very well and that dad, “Shango” has been diligently guarding the den while mom, “Oya” has been tirelessly nursing and tending to her young.  Now that the pups are over a month old, they are exploring more and have started to leave their den and play in their outdoor yard. 

“The best time to see them is right as the zoo opens at 9:30am or right before it closes at 5:00pm.” explained Farrah Conti, ZooWorld’s animal care curator. “They are a nocturnal species, so dad tends to sleep in the yard during the day while the pups are in their den.”
“We could not have asked for anything better,” says Erika Newell, ZooWorld’s COO “It’s been amazing to be able to remotely watch their growth and development while they are still in their den and it’s now extra exciting to see them playing outside in their yard. Because we were able to observe them remotely, we have been able to collect so much behavioral data that we didn’t have before.  Now that we know these things that no one knew, we can share those observations with researchers and other zoos.” 

ZooWorld Zoological Park is one of only 7 zoos in the U.S to house aardwolves and it is the first zoo in the U.S. to successfully reproduce the species since the early 1980’s. Aardwolves are members of the hyena family (nope, not an actual wolf!), but are unique to the group in that they are exclusively insectivores, feeding mainly on termites.  The size of a small dog, aardwolves have stripes (in a funny contrast to their spotted hyena cousins) and a long shaggy mane that stands straight up when they are threatened, making them resemble a small lion. Most surprising of all is that these unassuming little guys pack a huge lion's roar!  Aardwolves can be found in South and East Africa

If you think hyena are as cools as we do, check out our conservation partners page for some great in-situ programs that are saving species!