So small: This Kirk's dik-dik antelope is being hard-reared by staff at Chester Zoo after being abandoned She was abandoned by her mother during the cold snap but she has since won the hearts of everyone who has met her.
This tiny antelope, who is barely ten inches tall, is being bottle fed milk five times a day and will
be given a helping hand until she is old enough to tuck into a diet of buds, shoots and fruits herself.
Experts at Chester Zoo believe the icy weather may have put a chill on her mother's maternal instincts, leaving the keepers to step in.
The baby antelope is a Kirk's dik-dik, the first of her kind to be born in the zoo.
Senior keeper Helen Massey has been playing mother to the new arrival.
"Kirk's dik-dik is one of the smaller of the antelope species but what they lack in stature, they make up for in appeal," she said.
"Our addition is growing stronger by the day and we hope she will be holding her own in the next few weeks."
Mind the mouse: Chester Zoo's Tim Rowlands at the computer with his tiny companion looking on
Feeding time: Zoo keeper Tim's hands dwarf his tiny charge as he gives her milkNative to Kenya, Tanzania and Namibia, the dik-dik gets its name from the noise it makes when running for cover. They can live for up to 10 years.
The female's parents came from Colchester and Hanover zoos
photo: dailymail
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