The ugly baby that has the "Aah!" factor

A pink-backed pelican chick has hatched at Birdland Park and Gardens in Gloucestershire for the first time in recent memory.

Keepers at the Bourton-on-the-Water wildlife attraction say the chick, which was born at the end of November, is doing well.

The chick, which was hatched in an incubator, is being hand-reared by keeper Alistair Keen who is having to feed it five times a day on a diet of finely chopped fish, water and vitamins.

Although the chick was born featherless its first set of downy feathers are already beginning to come through and the pelican, which has yet to be named, will soon be moved out of the incubator to continue its development under a heat light.

Pink-backed pelicans are found in Africa, southern Arabia and India. They get their name from the fact that some individuals have a pinkish colouring to the feathers on their backs.

The birds have a wingspan of close to two-metres and their beaks can be nearly 40 centimetres long.

Parents usually lay one to three eggs, but chick mortality is often high due to sibling aggression. They fledge after 84 days.