Two-year-old Gabby Kindig smiled when her mother, Barb Kindig, told her they were looking at a baby scimitar-horned oryx.

“A baby,” Gabby Kindig said.

The scimitar-horned oryx are a new exhibit at Potter Park Zoo, 1301 S. Pennsylvania Ave. in Lansing. The animals became a part of the park a few weeks ago.

The oryx can stand up to 4 feet tall, at their shoulders, and can weigh up to 440 pounds. The animals are known for their “scimitar,” or sickle-shaped horns, which are used for protection and sometimes in courtship.

Gerry Brady, zoo director, said the park received the animals because it belongs to the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. The organization is responsible for accrediting 190 zoos in North America.

“There is a special endangered breeding program for them,” he said.

Brady said experts believe there haven’t been any oryx left in the wild since World War II. The oryx, he said, were killed by many European businessmen and the military.

The park breeds the animals to trade with other zoos that belong to the association.

Potter Park has four of the 350 oryx that live in zoos in North America.

“We have an adult male, two females and a young one that is only a couple of months old,” Brady said.

The new exhibit has gotten plenty of praise from visitors.

“We are getting a lot of interesting comments; when (people) see them they are attracted,” Brady said.

Jennifer Keat visited the zoo Tuesday.

“I think they are beautiful, just gorgeous animals,” the Ohio resident said.

Another relatively new attraction are the red pandas that also belong to a breeding program.

The pandas have been called fire foxes because of their red coat. They have also been referred to as cat bears because of their whiskers, ears and markings that resemble both animals.

Zoo patron Kim Switala said the zoo is educating people as to why conservation of endangered animals is so important.

“People who have never seen animals like this before would never even know they exist and that they are in trouble,” she said.

Richard Snider, chairman of the Department of Zoology at MSU, said Potter Park Zoo, along with others, has many positive points for endangered animals.

“In some cases the habitat for the animal has been reduced if anything is even left,” he said.

The zoos, Snider said, provide a safe place for endangered animals and also give spectators a chance to see animals that are in danger of disappearing forever.

“You have a certain amount of education to get the local population to care,” Snider said.

The park is also a source of entertainment, which zoos have been providing for thousands of years, Snider said. He said no matter what television provides for people, there is no substitute for the living, breathing experience.

“They are a teaser,” he said. “They are the ambassador to the animal world.”