Marwell Zoo announces names of new-born animals

Amongst the youngsters receiving a new name are the red river hoglets, born in July, African Wild Ass and Grevy’s zebra born in August, a Kirk’s dik-dik born in September as well as a sitatunga born in October.

All of the animals have been settling into life at the zoo, bonding with their mothers and getting to know their extended families.

READ MORE: WATCH: Marwell Zoo welcomes 'cutest Pumpkin in the patch'

The three red river hoglets were born in July, and have been going from strength to strength with mother Lisala, father Kermit, and big brother Matonda. The triplets have been growing quickly, with guests able to see the changes in their coat patterns as their markings begin to fade.

The red river hog piglets (Image: Paul Webber - Marwell Zoo)The piglets have been given Swahili names – Moja, Mbili and Tatu which mean One, Two and Three.

In August, Marwell announced the arrival of one of the rarest mammals on the planet, a critically endangered African wild ass.

The African wild ass foal (Image: Paul Webber - Marwell Zoo)Keepers have confirmed that the foal is a boy, and he has been named Qalin, which means silver, to reflect that he is the 25th African wild ass foal to have been born at the zoo.

Keepers were surprised to turn up for work a week later to another new arrival, this time a Grevy’s zebra foal, born shortly before everyone arrived for work.

The foal has now been confirmed as female and in accordance with the naming conventions for Grevy’s at Marwell she’s been named Xyla.

Grevy’s are named by working through the alphabet, in a similar way to meteorologists naming storms.  The previous foal was Windsor, born in 2022 in the late Queen’s jubilee year.

Marwell also welcomed the second Kirk’s dik-dik ever to be born there. Born to mother, Caramel and father, Jos, keepers have now confirmed that the new arrival is a boy and they’ve given him the name Aadan.

Dik-dik (Image: Paul Webber - Marwell Zoo)SEE ALSO: Team behind 878 AD experience recognised with pair of awards

Amongst the most shy of all of the animals at Marwell, the zoo’s Sitatunga welcomed an unseasonal new arrival in October.

Born to father Tumnus and mother Winnie, this little one has been given a name that compliments his mum’s– Dubu, meaning Bear in Swahili.

Sitatunga (Image: Paul Webber - Marwell Zoo)Guests can visit all of these animals plus Pumpkin the banteng calf and Nkutu the okapi calf between 1pm and 4pm on the day of their Glow Marwell booking and members can visit between 1pm and 4pm on Glow Marwell dates.

The zoo will be open from 10am until 4pm on Sunday, December 24 and normal opening hours will resume from Sunday, December 31.