Rare anteater pup hitches a ride with mum after being born in the Cotswolds

These cute pictures show a rare giant anteater pup riding on its mum's back after being born at a UK wildlife park. Little Antony was born to parents Zorro and Zeta at Cotswold Wildlife Park last week.

He is the third breeding success for the parents since their arrival at the park in Burford, Oxfordshire, in 2010. And the birth came just days before World Anteater Day - on November 19.

The park is just one of only two collections in the UK to have bred giant anteaters in the last 12 months. Senior mammal keeper Jenni Maxwell discovered the new pup during her morning keeper duties.

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She said: "Zeta very proudly sat up in her bed at 7am on a Sunday morning and lifted her tail to show off her newborn pup. She is a brilliant mother, is very patient and allows the youngster to climb onto her back before making her way out of bed.

"The pup will stay on her back for the first few months of his life and he will align his stripe markings on his back with hers to provide camouflage. Antony has a bright white stripe down his back and his tail, which is rather unusual for Anteater pups."

Anteaters are generally solitary animals, except during the mating season. After a gestation period of around 190 days, the female produces a single pup which weighs approximately 1.3kg.

The female gives birth standing up and the young anteater immediately climbs onto her back. The young are born with a full coat of hair and adult-like markings, aligning with their mother’s camouflaging.

A mother will carry the baby on her back for approximately six to nine months- until it is almost half her size. The young suckle for two to six months and become independent after roughly two years, or when the mother becomes pregnant again.

The giant anteater is considered to be one of the most threatened mammals of Central America and is feared extinct in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and Uruguay, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Giant anteaters are listed as “Vulnerable” on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species. Habitat loss, roadkills, hunting and wildfires have substantially affected their population numbers over the last ten years. Scientists estimate that 5,000 individuals are left in the wild.

The new anteater pup also shares his home with Crested Screamers – a large bird species with one of the most impressive calls in the bird world. And the adults have produced the first chicks to ever hatch at the park.

Senior mammal keeper Jenni adds: "Our first-time parents shared the duty of incubating the eggs for 44 days, although the male did a lot more than the female and took it very seriously! When all four chicks hatched, they resembled bright yellow tennis balls.

"Now that they're older, they are starting to look and act just like their formidable parents. In the wild they are known as "guard birds" where they will alert all other animals in their habitat of any threat nearby by a very loud tandem call, hence why they get their name "screamer".

"Due to them having a very impressive powerful call, we have named our chicks after Taylor Swift as we are big fans here at the Park. The chicks, named Taylor, Alison, Swift and Red, are now all getting their own personalities and have started helping build the nests and trying to join in with the alarm calls!

"These four chicks will have increased the captive UK population by almost 20% so they are very important to the breeding programme."

World Anteater Day is celebrated on November 19, 2024. Its aim is to raise awareness of these remarkable animals and highlight the plight they face in the wild with increasing habitat loss.