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The Bureau of Land Management may have found a face to launch a thousand adoptions.
It's the face of a baby burro born three weeks ago at Utah's Hogle Zoo. Nicknamed Burro-ito by zookeepers, he's charming visitors from a pen along the tracks of the Zoofari Express train.
"You do want to take him home, don't you?" zoo spokeswoman Erica Hansen said, moments after a train filled with kids and their moms passed by, the sight of Burro-ito standing shyly between his mom and an "auntie" burro eliciting oohs and aahs, shrieks and finger pointing.
That's the kind of reaction federal BLM officials hoped to get when they entered a partnership two years ago to display animals from its wild-horse and -burro adoption program at Hogle Zoo.
Let people see these animals, said Gus Warr, BLM state wild-horse and burro specialist, and maybe more people will be inclined to adopt them.
"The zoo is the catalyst we're using as our live billboard," Warr said. "This has worked out great. We didn't plan to have this baby burro born up here."
What luck.
BLM officials in Arizona had rounded up Burro-ito's mom, Wiley, and another female burro, Olive, and shipped them to an agency holding facility in the Sanpete County town of Axtell
They then were moved along with two mustangs to Hogle Zoo, hoping to increase public knowledge of the BLM's adoption program through visibility.
"Last year, we tried it with three geldings and had such good success we mixed it up to have burros and horses for display," Warr said. "But the burros have stolen the show. Next year, we may do a complete burro exhibit there."
It sure helps to have a cuddly little gray-haired guy like Burro-ito come along.
"They are the cutest things in the world," Warr said. "All ears and legs."
Few people know better than Benjamin Daum, a zookeeper who has been with Burro-ito since birth. He's enjoyed watching as Aunt Olive protected the little guy from the horses and then seemed to sulk when Daum separated her from Burro-ito and his mom so they could bond.
A couple of times when Daum was cleaning the pen, Burro-ito wanted to help out a little too much, eager to see what was going on.
"He definitely got in the way," Daum said.
Since Hogle Zoo first released photos of Burro-ito last week, his picture has been tweeted around the world, Hansen said, noting that she has read several conversations between people considering adopting an animal.
Warr said these burros and mustangs will remain at Hogle Zoo until the end of October, when they will be moved to a BLM sale site in Delta.
Anyone interested in adopting any of these or other animals may call the Utah Wild Horse and Burro Hotline, 801-539-4050.
Burros and wild horses "are available on a first come, first serve basis. But if we get a lot of people calling in for a certain animal, we'll take [the caller's] contact information and, once the animals get to Delta, we'll do a competitive bidding process," Warr said.
The bidding process starts at $125 and goes up, Warr added. The facility is open Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Weekend appointments are possible.