Cotswold Wildlife Park’s First Baby Giant Anteater Makes its Debut

Cotswold Wildlife Park have announced the birth of the only Giant Anteater baby to have ever been born at the Park.

It’s still early days, but both mother and baby are healthy and can be seen in their enclosure next to the Children’s Farmyard.

The pup was born on 16th February and is a result of the successful pairing of first-time parents Zorro and Zeta. They both arrived at the Burford collection in 2010.

Zeta is proving to be a good mother, albeit a shy one. Anteaters are generally solitary creatures. Once a year, the female gives birth to a single pup. Gestation length is around 190 days. The mother carries her offspring on her back for approximately 6 months. 

Curator of Cotswold Wildlife Park, Jamie Craig, commented: “It is always exciting for us to breed a species for the first time, and especially so in this case as the anteaters are such interesting creatures. The baby is a miniature version of the adults and is already exploring from the safety of its mother’s back, where it clings tenaciously with its already powerful claws.”