SOUTH BEND — A zoo in South Bend has given three endangered African painted dog puppies a second chance at life through a golden retriever surrogate.
Officials with the Potawatomi Zoo say the painted dogs were rejected by their mother after birth. The three pups, called Blue, Red and Orange, were born on Sept. 28.
The zoo already had a fourth adult painted dog.
“Blue, Red and Orange have had an unusual and challenging start to life, but the zoo hopes they will have a bright and successful future,” the zoo said in a social media post.
Zookeepers were hand-raising the litter of pups but decided to partner with the Indiana Council for Animal Welfare to find a surrogate dog.
“It’s so important for painted dogs to be raised in a canine social structure,” the zoo said.
A golden retriever named Kassy was in the process of nursing her puppies, and immediately cared for Blue, Red and Orange as her own.
“She cared for them for the first critical month of their lives. She’s a hero in our eyes,” the zoo said.
The zoo says the three pups are “healthy, rambunctious and incredibly cute” as they reach 11-weeks-old.
African painted dogs have been listed as an endangered species since 1990, and there is only an estimated population of 6,600 left in the wild.
