A two-week-old ant-eating aardvark has been unveiled at Antwerp zoo in Belgium. Little Nuru, which means 'light' in Swahili, is only the tenth baby aardvark born in the zoo in more than 50 years. Xavier Beghin, a spokesperson for the zoo said it was difficult to get aardvarks to breed.
Aardvark mothers can be rather nonchalant with their offspring and not very loving, he added. At night, accidents happen with mothers knocking their babies with their powerful feet. The mothers also often do not produce enough milk so their young struggle to put on weight.
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It was the baby aardvark's mother Curly's fourth attempt to give birth. Her first three babies did not survive. The spokesman said she may have learnt her lessons, adding Curly had become very protective towards little Nuru since the baby was born on January 6.
During the first two weeks of her life, she was kept under 24-hour surveillance. Mr Beghin said that it was too early to see if baby Nuru is a boy or a girl. An elusive, nocturnal creature, aardvarks are rarely seen in the wild. They live mainly in sub-saharan Africa.
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