Adorable aardvark born at Colchester Zoo

A zoo is celebrating the arrival of a baby aardvark, which means 'Earth pig' in Afrikaans.

Mum OQ and dad Koos welcomed their first baby together just weeks ago. OQ is an experienced and caring mum, and this is her 12th child.

Koos arrived back in October 2023 from Chester Zoo in the hope that he would raise more children with OQ.

So zoo staff are delighted to see Koos settling in well and helping towards the conservation of the threatened species.

Aardvarks are easily recognisable by their long snout and pointy ears. Their short, powerful limbs with shovel-shaped claws, make them excellent diggers and in the wild their burrows can be up to 13 metres long.

Their tongues are around 30cm long and is used to catch termites and ants. They can eat up to 50,000 insects each night.

The nocturnal animals are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

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