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Your morning adorable: Common eland calf frolics at the Oakland Zoo

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The Oakland Zoo‘s newest addition, a common eland calf staffers have named Bali, certainly seems to have a certain joie de vivre, doesn’t she?

Bali is just under a month old, and her birth presents a bit of a riddle -- see, the Oakland Zoo doesn’t have any male elands. (The solution to this seemingly perplexing puzzle is actually quite simple: Bali’s mother, Etana, was already pregnant when she moved to Oakland last fall. Elands have a gestation period similar to that of humans.) Bali’s birth is the first of her species at the zoo in nearly 30 years.

When little Bali is fully grown, she’s likely to stand up to 6 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh upwards of 1,000 pounds! (Male elands tend to be a bit larger than females and can weigh up to a ton.) It’ll take her a while to grow that large, but eland calves are known for growing quickly -- eland mothers’ milk is twice as fattening as the milk of domestic dairy cows, according to the zoo.

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Fun fact: Common elands and their relatives, giant elands, are actually about the same size, despite what the latter’s name would have you believe. Both are native to Africa, with the common eland occupying primarily the savanna regions of southern and eastern Africa and the giant eland preferring the savannas of central and western Africa.

Check out another photo of Bali after the jump!

RELATED CUTE MEMBERS OF THE ANTELOPE FAMILY:
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Your morning adorable: Baby Nile Lechwe antelope at the Budapest Zoo

-- Lindsay Barnett

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