Overview
- Chester Zoo says the newborn aardvark is now healthy and living full-time with its mother after several weeks of keeper support.
- Staff placed the calf in a warm incubator each evening and bottle-fed milk every few hours through the night while the nocturnal mother foraged.
- The birth is only the second aardvark in the zoo’s 94-year history, and the only UK aardvark calf reported since 2024.
- Keepers nicknamed the youngster Womble, and they say it is too early to tell whether it is male or female.
- Aardvarks are scarce in zoos, with about 68 in Europe and 114 worldwide, as wild populations face habitat loss and hunting in sub-Saharan Africa.