Rudy DiMemmo and Noelle Camerote couldn't get enough of three very special kittens born at the Philadelphia Zoo. The couple from Philadelphia, who haven't been to the zoo in "a couple of years," saw a video posted on the zoo's Facebook page and just had to come on over.
"They were so cute, we just had to see them," said Camerote.
These three kittens — Black-footed Cat kittens, to be precise — were born at the zoo on April 8.
Parents Aza and Ascari came to the Philadelphia Zoo as a pair from the Kansas City Zoo, said Tammy Schmidt, curator of carnivores. The cats, normally very solitary, don't get together unless they're mating, she said.
In the wild, "usually there's one male that overlaps multiple females," Schmidt said. "I know. Aren't those males lucky?"
Here at the zoo, the pair has mated a few times with no success. But Schmidt and zoo keeper Ken Pelletier remained hopeful that this couple would eventually produce kittens.
"We waited and waited for two and half years," Schmidt said. The pair had success in the past at the Kansas City Zoo, she said, so they were confident the wait would be worth it.
"We saw Aza gain weight and we held our breath," she said.
Two male kittens and one female kitten made their official debut at the zoo just a few weeks ago. Today, the babies — Drogon, Viserion and Rhaegal (they were named after the dragons on "Game of Thrones") — frolic about inside their new home at the zoo. The siblings stay with their mom, while their dad stays off exhibit.
Children on field trips gush over these little guys. But cute as they are, Schmidt said they can be tough and aggressive.
"They're very stand-your-ground kind of cats," she said. "They're very talkative and ferocious sounding. They hiss a lot."
Full of attitude in such little bodies, these wild cats are actually the smallest cats in Africa. Smaller than a domestic cat, these guys are known as "anthill tigers" in their native South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, Schmidt said.
They eat mostly insects and spiders and are active at dusk and dawn.
The zoo keeper doesn't touch the kittens except to give them their vaccines. They are wild and that's mom's job anyway, Schmidt said.
And before the trio could see their new home — the exhibit space is where they spend their days, "they have everything they need in there," Schmidt said — the staff at the zoo got to work baby-proofing it.
"We lowered the pond and made sure everything was safe in there for them," she said.
The new kittens have been extremely popular at the zoo since their debut drawing crowds of onlookers whenever the siblings are active.
Once the kittens reach sexual maturity they'll be sent to other zoos to continue breeding, Schmidt said.
"It'll help the population grow ... it's just a matter of finding the right pairs," she said.
But, for now, the zoo is thrilled to have these cute little kittens that have been listed on the endangered animal list as a "vulnerable" species since the early 2000s.
"It's just really exciting for the zoo," Schmidt said.
Contact Features Editor Kristie Rearick at 856-686-3638 or krearick@southjerseymedia.com