New arrival at Colchester Zoo
The baby Aardvark was born on 28th December 2007. It was quickly checked over and weighed and keepers were pleased and relieved to find that the baby was fine and weighed a healthy 1.4kg. Aardvarks are notoriously difficult to breed and a huge percentage do not survive, both in the wild and in captivity. In fact, Colchester Zoo is the only zoo in the UK, and one of only two zoos in Europe to have successfully bred Aardvarks in the past! If the baby weighs less than 1.2 kg it is extremely unlikely that it will be able to survive as it is too small and underdeveloped. However, at 1.4 kg we are hopeful that the baby will thrive in the following weeks, without encountering any problems.
Keepers at Colchester Zoo have now successfully raised two Aardvark babies, Puff and Magic, and so are experienced in helping to raise them. Due to the poor eye sight and general clumsiness of adult aardvarks, a lot of care and attention needs to be given to the youngster to help it survive. Aardvarks are not particularly well sighted and are nocturnal meaning that they are most active at night, and a combination of this and the fact that they are generally very clumsy, can often result in the baby being crushed. They are also sometimes suffocated as the mother will roll onto them without realising the effect of her actions. Therefore to ensure that the baby has the very best start in life, the keepers and curators at the zoo have moved the other Aardvarks out of the burrow and the keepers take it in turns to stay with the baby 24 hours a day. Through the night, the keepers take it in turns to take the baby home and bottle feed it through the night, thereby strengthening its chances of survival. The keepers will continue to stay with the baby until it is 1.8 kg and it can withstand the clumsiness of its oblivious mother! This is usually for about the first two weeks or so of the baby's life. However, it will be at least a couple of months until the other aardvarks return to the burrow!
The Aardvark is a unique animal which is only found in sub-Saharan Africa. It has a very muscular body and is surprisingly strong, with short powerful limbs equipped with sharp claws which it uses for digging and burrowing. It has a long narrow head with a pig like snout and long rabbit like ears! It also has a very thick and powerful tail. Aardvarks lead secretive lives, being active mainly at night as they are nocturnal. They are also solitary animals living in burrows which can reach up to 4 metres in length.
The Aardvark only feeds at night and is aided by its excellent sense of smell and hearing which helps it to locate termite hills and ants nests. When it finds a nest, the Aardvark uses its sharp claws to make a hole in the wall; it then inserts its sticky tongue into the nest to scoop up the ants. The diet of an aardvark is much the same all year round, but when food supplies are scarce, it will supplement its diet with soft bodied insects and fruit. The main enemies of an Aardvark are man, African Hunting Dogs, Pythons, and big cats. If threatened, the aardvark will usually try and dig its way out of trouble!
The Aardvark is part of an ESB European Breeding Programme here at Colchester Zoo as they are becoming increasingly threatened in the wild. This is partly due to intensive crop farming and man, and generally due to land use changes across the southern regions of Africa. The birth of another baby is therefore great news for breeding programme.