Chester Zoo celebrates baby boom - in photos

The zoo, a registered charity, is celebrating an unprecedented surge in new animal arrivals with the chicks joining two Asian elephant calves, a baby Bornean orangutan, two Rothschild’s giraffes, a pair of red river hoglets, a capybara pup and twin sengis in recent months.

Many of the adorable newborns belong to rare species, including the latest additions – two Javan green magpie chicks.

Boom

Facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild, the birds are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The zoo’s new, and incredibly rare, additions have therefore given cheer to one of the world’s most threatened species.

Mike Jordan, collections director, said: “The zoo is currently in the midst of one of its biggest ever baby booms.

“We put these conservation breeding successes down to a whole range of factors – years of careful planning, top class facilities, skilled zookeepers and animal staff, first rate husbandry and scientific insight.

“Every birth helps us to raise awareness of the survival pressures that many species around the planet are faced with and the conservation work we are doing to try and protect them.

“Javan green magpies hatching here, for example, gives a huge lift to conservation efforts to save the species and ensure its survival. Our long-term ambitions are to return birds bred in the UK and Europe to the forests of Indonesia.”