Babies in the spring swing

Leopard tortoise at Auckland Zoo. Photo / Kellie Blizzard

It’s the season for oohing and aahing and snatching a cuddle from new farm animals bounding about the city’s parks. For the exotic, go and see Auckland Zoo’s newest giraffe and kiwi chicks, says Sarah Ell

Nothing says spring like baby animals. There are plenty of new arrivals to see around Auckland, with the chance of cuddles if you're lucky.

Farm animals

Auckland might be New Zealand's largest city but there are still pockets of farmland where the new season's farm animals can be seen kicking up their heels.

Perhaps the most central is Cornwall Park, where spring has well and truly sprung. Park director Michael Ayrton says lambing is finished and about 800 lambs are being docked. Calving of the park's simmental cattle is also complete.

The daffodils and magnolias are still in bloom. The cherry blossoms are late to arrive this season and should be out next month for the festival days (October 11, 18). "It's a great time of year," Ayrton says. "There's a lot of bird life in the park too - we have paradise duck ducklings too, like giant bumble bees."

Further south, lambing is also complete at Ambury Regional Park, at Mangere. Ranger Janine Nillesen says the lambs, born in July, are soon to be weaned but are still friendly and keen to investigate visitors. Newer arrivals include eight piglets plus wild baby pukeko and a bunch of chicken eggs in an incubator expected to hatch at the start of October for the park's annual Farm Day.

Also out by the airport, Butterfly Creek has baby lambs, just a few weeks old, baby goats, chicks, baby guinea pigs and hopefully soon some baby rats on display at its Buttermilk Farm. On the two Wednesdays of the school holidays join special spring animal encounters.

Spring lambs at Cornwall Park. Photo / Michael Craig

In the west, at Kiwi Valley Farm Park in Henderson, kids can also get close to lambs, kids, calves, baby rabbits and guinea pigs, ducklings and chickens. The lambs are still quite small - ranging from 2 to 6 weeks old - and are tame enough to be patted and fed, although you may find yourself being sized up as a snack by the nibbly baby goats.

Kiwi Valley also has alpacas, donkeys, pigs and ponies, and adult sheep and cows, plus there are tractor and pony rides.

Exotic animals

Auckland Zoo is celebrating the arrival of a much larger spring baby: Mtundu, the second giraffe born there this year (and the zoo's first male calf for several years). Mtundu, whose name means "mischievous" in Swahili, was born on August 21 and is starting to venture out into the Pridelands area with the other giraffes, including "big baby" Zuri, born in April.

Pridelands team leader Nat Sullivan says the young giraffes are the result of an Australasian breeding programme which may see the calves moved to other zoos once they are older, to strengthen breeding populations.

Also getting into the spring swing at the zoo are the leopard tortoises and the geckos. Five new tortoises have hatched, with about 20 more eggs still being incubated.

Keeper Sarah Brill says the baby tortoises are about the size of a ping-pong ball when they hatch but can grow to around half a metre long and weigh 30kg. The new arrivals will live in the area.

Three baby native Auckland green geckos have also been born, including one striking yellow example. Keeper Seth Gardener says another female is also thought to be pregnant as she is getting "pear-shaped", but the timing of any further new arrivals will be a surprise: "You just walk past and find two perfect little geckos sitting there."

Giraffes at Auckland Zoo. Photo / Auckland Zoo

Feathered friends

Auckland Zoo is also celebrating new arrivals at its kiwi-hatching programme. The zoo is a critical part of BNZ Operation Nest Egg, in which kiwi eggs are taken from wild nests and hatched at protected facilities. Juvenile kiwi are then released on predator-free islands before being returned to their original homes once they are big enough to fend for themselves.

Birds team leader Todd Jenkinson says three eggs have successfully hatched this season, with more arrivals expected over the next few months as eggs are brought in from the wild.

Last year the zoo raised 20 chicks While the Nest Egg kiwi babies are not on public display, the zoo offers a behind-the-scenes kiwi encounter where visitors can view the breeding area and see the chicks.

Need to know

• Cornwall Park, Green Lane. Park open 7am-dusk.
• Ambury Regional Park: 43 Ambury Rd, Mangere Bridge. Ambury Farm Day, Saturday, October 4, 10am-4pm, free entry.
• Butterfly Creek: 10-12 Tom Pearce Drive, Auckland Airport. Wednesday, September 30 and October 7, animal encounters at 11.30am and 2.30pm.
• Kiwi Valley Farm Park, 308 Henderson Valley Rd, Henderson.
•Auckland Zoo, Motions Rd, Western Springs. Behind-the-scenes kiwi experiences $95,