How we prepared for piglets

Hi everyone! Nadia here from the Hoofstock Team! As you have hopefully seen on our social media networks, or on grounds at the Zoo, we have three little bundles of joy! On April 13, our female warthog, Eleanor, gave birth to three female piglets, Eloise, Daphne and Penelope. They have been so much fun to work with and I want to tell you a little bit about what happened behind the scenes to prepare for them!

Once it was suspected that Eleanor was pregnant, we worked with the Veterinary Team to do voluntary ultrasounds monthly. As her due date got closer, these were moved to weekly. The ultrasounds allowed us to monitor how the piglets were growing, which gave us a clear birth window. We were also able to guess how many piglets we were expecting, which was very exciting to see.

Once we knew Eleanor was close to giving birth, we built her a special den box to build a nest in. It did not take long for Eleanor to make it her favorite sleeping spot, promptly letting our male warthog, Hamlet, know he was not welcome in the box.

Heat lamps, straw, and a nest cam were added to the nest box so that we could keep an eye on the piglets without disturbing them for the first two weeks. Once Eleanor was ready, we slowly watched as Eleanor and the piglets began spending less and less time in the nest box, exploring their behind-the-scenes areas before eventually venturing out onto habitat. All of these small steps lead us to where we are today!

We hope to see you all at Zoo Atlanta soon, where you can see our entire warthog family of five enjoying their day out on habitat together!

Nadia M.
Keeper I, Mammals