Dobby is Chester Zoo’s first baby Aardvark in 90 years!
Aardvark translates to ‘earth pig’ in the language of Afrikaans. These nocturnal animals use their long noses and keen sense of smell to sniff out ants and termites.
The calf was born at Chester Zoo and is currently being hand-reared every evening by zookeepers who are providing dedicated care.
The exhibit at the zoo is currently closed off to the public to allow privacy for the baby Aardvark and its family.
Staff decided to nickname the youngster Dobby inspired by the Harry Potter character and this baby girl Aardvark will certainly be loving life in the gloriously big enclosures that are part and parcel of all Chester Zoo enclosures.
Dave White, team manager said:
“This is the very first aardvark to be born at the zoo and so it’s a momentous landmark for us and a real cause for celebration. We’re overjoyed.
As soon as we spotted the new baby next to mum we noticed its uncanny resemblance to the Harry Potter character, Dobby, and so that’s the calf’s nickname for the time being!
Aardvark parents are notorious for being a little clumsy around their newborns. With the baby being so tiny and fragile, we’re therefore protecting it from any accidental knocks and bumps by helping mum out with supplementary feeding sessions throughout the night, just until the calf is a little stronger.
So, in the evening, when the parents are out exploring and feeding, we carefully place the calf into a special incubator and take it home to feed with warm milk every few hours.
The calf then spends the daytime bonding and snuggled up with mum Oni inside her burrow – and they’re both doing great together.”
Mark Brayshaw, Curator of Mammals at the zoo, added:
“Aardvarks are quite secretive creatures, which are mostly only ever active in darkness, and so some aspects of how they go about their lives remain relatively unknown.
Caring for species like aardvarks in zoos enables us to learn more about them – how they live, their behaviours and their biology. All of this information is then shared with other leading conservation zoos and helps to better inform our efforts to preserve their numbers.
This new calf joins a conservation breeding programme that only a handful of zoos are part of globally.”
Sadly we missed Chester Zoo’s first Baby Aardvark with the enclosure currently closed but we did manage to get a VLOG of our day regardless.
Check out our most recent VLOG below:
