Love is all around at Auckland Zoo

Valentine’s Day may typically involve romance, candlelit dinners and bouquets of flowers, but the language of love at Auckland Zoo involves a very different ‘display’ of affection.

Auckland Zoo’s flamboyance of flamingos has a few quirky couples: a solid pair that are six years strong; an interesting love triangle between a male-male pair and a lingering female; and a couple that couldn’t get it right last year but are now loved up with their first chick. Typically, flamingos in the wild are not monogamous, but come breeding season our special flock seem to stick with their same partner year in and year out. Breeding season begins around August when the birds perform some wonderful courtship behaviours, display their most desirable assets, pair up and then separate from the group to build their nests. Last year, our young yet ever-confident Chick tried to wow a more mature Lizzie, but his lack of experience didn’t impress. This year Lizzie realised what she was missing out on and took Chick back, love bloomed, and they have recently been lucky enough to have Chick Jr. 

Our newest zoo couple is still going through their honeymoon period, and keeping a pretty low profile curled up in their love nest. It was very much ‘love at first sight’ for otter couple Kanan and Takumi. Kanan has been living the bachelor life for a while, but since the pair were introduced he has been the perfect gentleman. Takumi is not much of a morning-otter and likes her sleep-ins, but Kanan makes sure to get up for feeding time and bring her breakfast in bed.

Our red panda couple are a different story completely. Khela and Ramesh are both playing hard to get, and each is too stubborn to give in to the other. When Khela first joined Auckland Zoo last October Ramesh didn’t even come down from his tree to greet her, and Khela has responded by scent marking the enclosure and trying to take over the place! Pretending to ignore each other hasn’t entirely fooled our keepers, they have been spotted sharing a sleeping platform from time to time, and come breeding season (August – September) their hormones will kick in and then love will likely take over.

Lovebirds, very fittingly named, ‘fall in love’ and pair for life. At Auckland Zoo, each lovebird couple picks a nest box and keeps using that same box every time they produce a clutch of eggs, it’s their family home where they bring up their young. The female lays the eggs and incubates them whilst her attentive mate will come and feed her, then sleep there with his family at night. Our couples can often be viewed preening each other, and are always strengthening their bond.

Our critically endangered orange-fronted parakeet couple had an important task, to help save their species. They were a mature couple when they arrived at the zoo, that sadly had never successfully bred. Within months of arriving however, our sweet old couple had begun mating again and had chicks: five females and three males! Endemic to New Zealand, and with fewer than 300 of these beautiful birds left in the world, this success story would have to be the romantic highlight for us to rave about this Valentine’s Day.