Taipei Zoo

In the early morning of June 23, 2023, a Formosan serow named Weiwei at the Taipei Zoo gave birth to a daughter named Weibao. The baby serow, Weibao, hops around and follows its mother, or snuggles up next to her to nap. Weibao even imitates her mother by eating leaves, chewing on them for half a day but remaining intact.  Its cuteness has already melted the hearts of the keepers. What is exciting is that Formosan serow Weiwei was very close to humans when she arrived at the zoo in 2015. After several years of behavior rectification and care by the keepers, Weiwei has integrated well into the serow family. Weiwei has also successfully produced offspring, continuing the lineage and ensuring an increase in the genetic variance of ex-situ serow populations.

Weiwei has a special life experience. Born in 2014, Weiwei was sent to the Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute in Nantou for rescue due to the loss of its parents and even had its umbilical cord attached to itself when the keeper took care. The keeper stepped up as surrogate parents of Weiwei, who raised and taught this serow life skill. Weiwei, on that note, became the first Formosan serow to be successfully reared in the Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute.

The story of Formosan serow Weiwei has been full of twists and turns, but to our relief, it now happily lives with its cub. Over the years of caring for Weiwei, keepers have accumulated important experiences in breeding, reintroduction training, and correcting inappropriate behaviors of Formosan serow. They also contributed to a breeding program that introduced wild serow into the zoo's serow population, ensuring the genetic diversity within the population of wild serow to be more sustainable and healthy.