
Rare African okapi born at Chester Zoo
Miloli was born 6 May, but spent the few weeks of his life in a quiet nest area of the zoo.But now CCTV footage of Miloli shows him taking his very first, wobbly steps.Fiona Howe, Lead Keeper at Chester Zoo, said: "The footage we've captured offers a special insight into one of nature's most elusive and secretive species."
Okapi are uniquely patterned animals, but Fiona explains that these patterns have two really useful purposes."Though Miloli appears to be wearing black-and-white striped socks, these patterns play important roles - acting as camouflage and assisting young okapi in following their mothers in the forest," she said."Now that he's developed confidence, Miloli has just started to follow the stripes on his mother's hind legs as she leads him out of the nest to explore together for the first time."Okapi are the national symbol of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and protected under Congolese law.But their numbers are falling in the wild because of habitat loss from mining and poaching for their meat.Chester Zoo say they are working with wider international conservation breeding programmes to help grow okapi numbers.
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Times
8 hours ago
- Times
How the UK's rarest bat species are staging a comeback
In a dark network of tunnels in West Sussex you'll find a pair of greater mouse-eared bats. By all rights, these large bats shouldn't be there. One of 18 bat species found in the UK, the greater mouse-eared was thought to have been pushed to extinction in Britain during the 1980s. However, one male was found in the disused railway tunnels in 2002, leading him to be called the UK's loneliest bat. Assuming he was still alive — they can live for 35 years — he became a bit less lonely when a second was spotted and the known population doubled. In January it became practically a party, when conservationists were delighted to find a third at an undisclosed location in Sussex. Even better, it was an adult breeding female. In ecologists' parlance, the foothold is still so fragile that the greater mouse-eared is considered a 'vagrant' rather than a 'resident' British species. However, Daniel Whitby, a bat conservationist, said the third offered huge hope. 'It does indicate some tiny residual population that could have clung on, just a few individuals, and there could be something here,' he said. The greater mouse-eared is one of several bats showing potential to become that most critically endangered of species: a conservation good news story. Not all of the 18 bat species are monitored well enough to tell how they are doing. But for those that are, the populations of five have increased since 1999, and six remained stable. Just last week there was welcome news for the second-rarest species, the grey long-eared bat. Down to about a thousand individuals nationally, the droppings of one was found in Kent, the first evidence of the species in the county for four decades. However, the bat may simply have been a migrant that strayed over from Sussex, which Whitby said would not be surprising given the males of the species are known to wander far. 'What would be really interesting, a real success story, is if it's a breeding colony [in Kent],' he said. The health of the grey long-eared is far from a tale of unalloyed happiness. In recent years the only known breeding colony in Sussex, in the Petworth area, was destroyed by builders. 'The [Sussex] population, if anything, has probably gone down,' Whitby said. Some rare species have benefited from a helping hand. The greater horseshoe, which is about the size of a small pear and whose numbers crashed 90 per cent in the last 100 years, declined largely owing to timber insecticide treatments wiping out its food. However, there are about 13,000 today, up from a low of roughly 4,000 in the 1980s. Their stronghold is southwest England and south Wales but, aided by projects such as Vincent Wildlife Trust's Horseshoes Heading East, their numbers are growing further east too. Though there have always been some in Sussex, in the past 14 years Whitby and other experts including Scotty Dodd discovered several roosts in the county. In some cases they installed heaters, or incubators, to increase the chances of healthy pups being born. Strict planning laws, habitat protection, bat-friendly modifications to buildings and a reduction in the use of toxic chemicals are aiding bats too. Ryan Greaves runs bat safaris at the Knepp estate in West Sussex, where rewilding efforts have increased the number of species from five to 13, including rare Bechstein's bat and barbastelles. He was part of a project with the Sussex Bat Group that bought up a building home to greater horseshoes in the village of Lodsworth, to save it from being sold off for development or knocked down. Volunteers at Vincent Wildlife Trust making roosting boxes and pots to go inside DANIEL HARGREAVES DANIEL HARGREAVES • Why the Knepp rewilding project is truly magical Bats are harder to detect, monitor and count than birds, but technology is helping. Whitby used ultrasonic lures to call Bechstein's bats for the first national survey of the species two decades ago, discovering seven colonies in one summer. A citizen science project in Chichester used detectors in people's gardens to detect the ultrasonic chattering of rare bat visitors. The nascent recoveries of some bat species are still tentative: 4 of 11 native British mammals at the most imminent risk of extinction are bats. And a bat renaissance is far from a foregone conclusion, with ministers accused of being 'nasty' to them with Labour's planning reforms and rhetoric about HS2's £100 million 'bat tunnel '. But there is hope that our bats may be a little less lonely in the future.


Glasgow Times
13 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
UK zoo released 'thousands of giant spiders' into wild
For that matter, have you seen one? Well, just last year, Chester Zoo posted on their Facebook page: "Ten years ago we helped release THOUSANDS of GIANT spiders back into the UK! "The fen raft spiders were bred right here at the zoo, and we're super happy to report there are now more than 10,000 breeding females... and they've just had the biggest mating season on record! "You can't miss them, they grow to be the size of your hand! Honestly, you're so welcome". It's fair to say that people in the comments than thrilled, at the time. "I love you Chester Zoo & very well done and all that, everyone does an amazing job - but you not have kept these to yourselves," said one. Someone else commented: "I need to know where they live so I can make sure I never get within 50 miles of one". Another user said: "As much as I'm not the biggest fan of spiders, they have their rightful place within an ecosystem. "Thank you Chester Zoo, for making sure you protect and look out for the species that are not always as appealing to the human eye. "Every living thing has its place and each little soul matters." Whilst another replied: "You guys do such great work but this is something I feel like I could have died happily not knowing about to be honest." But the news did not seem to terrify everyone, with one individual saying: "Well done. We need to get natural beings to thrive again. "Too many of the human species kill anything they see they don't like unable to realise that their species relies on all others for their existence. Spiders have their important place in the order of our world. Bx". Recommended reading: Spider season: Extinct spiders are making comeback in the UK Spider season: Huge Cardinal spiders could be in your home False widow spider warning issued as spider season begins Are fen raft spiders dangerous? The spider was on the verge of extinction in the UK in 2010 but has thankfully made a comeback thanks to the efforts of the (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) RSPB and now Chester Zoo. The Fen Raft Spider's diet includes other spiders, damselflies, dragonfly larvae and even fish and tadpoles. They are easiest to spot in grazing marsh ditches from June to September. The spiders are not venomous but are semi-aquatic and can run across the water's surface to capture their prey.


North Wales Chronicle
20 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
UK zoo released 'thousands of giant spiders' into wild
For that matter, have you seen one? Well, just last year, Chester Zoo posted on their Facebook page: "Ten years ago we helped release THOUSANDS of GIANT spiders back into the UK! "The fen raft spiders were bred right here at the zoo, and we're super happy to report there are now more than 10,000 breeding females... and they've just had the biggest mating season on record! "You can't miss them, they grow to be the size of your hand! Honestly, you're so welcome". It's fair to say that people in the comments than thrilled, at the time. "I love you Chester Zoo & very well done and all that, everyone does an amazing job - but you not have kept these to yourselves," said one. Someone else commented: "I need to know where they live so I can make sure I never get within 50 miles of one". Another user said: "As much as I'm not the biggest fan of spiders, they have their rightful place within an ecosystem. Fen raft spider. "Thank you Chester Zoo, for making sure you protect and look out for the species that are not always as appealing to the human eye. "Every living thing has its place and each little soul matters." Whilst another replied: "You guys do such great work but this is something I feel like I could have died happily not knowing about to be honest." But the news did not seem to terrify everyone, with one individual saying: "Well done. We need to get natural beings to thrive again. "Too many of the human species kill anything they see they don't like unable to realise that their species relies on all others for their existence. Spiders have their important place in the order of our world. Bx". Recommended reading: Spider season: Extinct spiders are making comeback in the UK Spider season: Huge Cardinal spiders could be in your home False widow spider warning issued as spider season begins The spider was on the verge of extinction in the UK in 2010 but has thankfully made a comeback thanks to the efforts of the (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) RSPB and now Chester Zoo. The Fen Raft Spider's diet includes other spiders, damselflies, dragonfly larvae and even fish and tadpoles. They are easiest to spot in grazing marsh ditches from June to September. The spiders are not venomous but are semi-aquatic and can run across the water's surface to capture their prey.