Marwell Zoo welcomes endangered zebra foal
The youngster is charming visitors within days of being born
Keepers at Marwell Zoo have said an endangered zebra foal is already capturing the hearts of visitors, just three days after being born.
The Grevy's zebra foal arrived at the wildlife park near Winchester earlier this week and is making itself at home in the Wild Explorers paddock.
Keepers say second-time mum Khumba is doing an exceptional job caring for her new arrival, who represents a vital addition to the fragile Grevy’s zebra population.
The site manages both the International Studbook and the European Ex situ Programme (EEP) for the species.
Tanya Langenhorst, Senior Conservation Biologist at Marwell Zoo, said:
"As EEP coordinator, I am very excited about the birth of this Grevy’s foal Monday morning. It has been a long wait since this species is pregnant for a minimum of 13 months.
"The EEP has been through several tough years with many older animals dying and only few foals being born.
“The European population currently only has 208 individuals. I am trying to grow it back to 250 so every foal counts and this one born at Marwell is only the fifth to be born this year."
In the wild, Grevy’s zebra are found primarily in Northern Kenya with isolated groups in Ethiopia. It is thought fewer than 3,000 of these magnificent animals remain.
Numbers declined because of habitat loss, extended periods of drought and poaching but it is thought the population is now stabilising.
Tanya, added:
"The Grevy’s zebra in the wild, in Kenya, are doing reasonably well with many reports of births. We are cautiously optimistic that the wild population has survived the terrible drought that lasted over two years, when Marwell and its partners in Kenya worked hard to keep them alive with supplementary hay feeding."
Foals usually stand within an hour of being born and take their first wobbly steps shortly afterwards. They have the largest ears of any zebra species which can rotate independently, allowing them to detect predators from different directions.
The new foal is a younger sibling to female Windsor, who was born in July 2022 following the celebrations for the late Queen’s Jubilee.