AN Essex Zoo is celebrating after a new animal was born into its collection - a baby aardvark.

Roddy Ashworth

AN Essex Zoo is celebrating after a new animal was born into its collection - a baby aardvark.

The tiny bald creature was born to mother Oq and father Adella earlier this month, but as of yet keepers have been unable to determine its gender.

However, because aardvarks are both clumsy and have very poor eyesight, the new addition is being taken away from its parents at night in case they roll over and squash it.

The ant-eating mammals are classed as endangered because of intensive crop farming in their native habitat and land use changes across the southern regions of Africa.

However, they are also notoriously difficult animals to breed in captivity and all of Colchester's previous youngsters - Magic, Puff and Kiyo - have been transferred to other zoos on breeding programmes in an effort to swell the captive population.

The long-snouted African mammals can grow up to about 2m in length and end up weighing between 45-65kg.