By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
BERRIEN SPRINGS – The animal barns at the Berrien County Youth Fair have been filled with curious little eyes and hands as visitors have enjoyed getting acquainted with a number of different animals. Kids can be seen laughing while petting goats, drooling over the cuteness of the horses and plugging their noses at the smell of the swine.
But one barn that seems to be a big hit is the Wonders of Birth barn, which features baby animals and their mothers.
On Wednesday, fair-goers enjoyed watching baby chickens run around a pen, baby goats hop to and fro and they even got a special treat as one pregnant cow, a Jersey Cow, was expected to give birth sometime during the day.
"I want to see the baby, but I don't want to watch the mommy have it," 6-year-old Alyssa Schimes of Stevensville said. "I think the mommy cow is hurting because you can see her breathing really, really hard."
Eric Lee, superintendent of the Wonders of Birth barn, said they are going to keep the Jersey cow in the pen, so people can watch and enjoy the birthing process.
A few other neat surprises awaited anxious visitors, as one pen featured a 23-year-old quarter horse named Ginger, who had recently given birth to a 100-pound palomino quarter horse.
"That's pretty unusual for a quarter horse to have an almost all-white baby. Everyone thinks it's albino, but it's not," Lee explained. The baby has some light tan spots throughout her body and even has very light blue eyes.
In another pen, to the amazement of some, a skeptical baby mule, who has yet to be named, stayed close to his mom while she chomped away at some hay.
What's so strange about that? Well, the mule's mother is actually a Belgian draft horse, owned by Sandy Vines of Niles. The baby's father is a large Jack Donkey, named Franklin, who stands 56 inches high. "That's very, very tall for a Jack Donkey," Lee said. "People get a little confused though when they put two and two together. 'A donkey and a draft horse, how was that possible?' They ask. Well, it's possible because it happened. Some people will let a donkey and a horse breed, because they get a mule, which is used to pull wagons and other heavier objects around farms. This case is a rare one though, especially since the mother is a draft horse. You really don't ever see that."
Lee also explained that mules don't reproduce. "The males can't at all. The females very rarely will, but males can't," he said.
As rare and awkward as it may seem, the mule and his mother, Anne, have been a big hit in the Wonders of Birth barn.