A yellow-backed duiker named Astrid is now visible at the Zoo’s Giraffe House
BALTIMORE, MD – The Maryland Zoo has welcomed a brand new species – a female, yellow-backed duiker [DYE-ker] (Cephalophus silvicultor) named Astrid [as-STRED] who is now viewable at the Giraffe House.
Along with two red pandas, this is the second new species the Zoo has introduced in the last four months.
Astrid arrived from the Dallas Zoo in June. The 9 year, 8-month old went through a standard quarantine before being introduced to the Zoo’s okapi [oh-KOP-ee] named Askari [a-SCAR-ee]. In the future, the two will frequently share the same yard.
“Yellow-backed duikers and okapis share habitat in the wild and these different species have similar temperaments so we expect this pair to do well together,” said Erin Cantwell Grimm, Mammal Curator at the Maryland Zoo. “At first, you might look at them and think they’re a related species but, physiologically, they’re quite different.”
Yellow-backed duikers have short horns with light markings around their jaw and marigold-colored hair on their back. In the wild, they live across central and western Africa.
These shy, forest-dwelling animals got their name from their instinct to run or hide when startled. Duiker means diver in Afrikaans (as in, diving for cover). Their conservation status is listed as “Near Threatened” by the IUCN due to over-hunting in the wild.
Maryland Zoo already has another species of duiker, the much smaller blue-duikers, which may be seen seasonally in the African aviary. To put their size difference into perspective, an average adult female blue duiker weighs between 8 and 16 pounds. When she arrived, Astrid weighed a little over 180 pounds.
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