First aardvark born in Russia

Russia’s first captive bred aardvark has been born at Yekaterinburg zoo, media report. The South African ant-eater look-alike is in excellent health, steadily gains weight and is very fond of running, Voice of Russia reported.

“The baby aardvark was born very weak,” the zoo’s spokesperson said. “She was brought to the world weighing only 1.920g.”
The 60-centimeter aardvark cub spent her first five days lying in the enclosure. The zoo was at first reluctant to announce her birth since the cub was born very fragile, like the young of her species usually do, and the administration was afraid “to put an evil eye” on the delicate South African mammal.

The news was leaked well after the animal’s birth on February 28, 2013 after the cub was solid and study on her tiny clawed feet.
Yekaterinburg Zoo’s spokesman Igor Permyakov said zookeepers had noticed strange behavior of the cub’s mother Baga before the New Year. An ultrasonic scanning revealed the anteater-like mammal was heavy with a daughter. Baga was closely monitored during the seven months of her pregnancy.

The baby aardvark is almost a month old now and stands 89 centimeter tall. She is 7.600g and still gaining weight feeding on her mother’s rich milk.

The aardvark is a burrowing mammal of southern Africa with a stocky, hairy body, large ears, a long tubular snout and powerful digging claws. Its name comes from Afrikaans and means "earth pig.”

The aardvark is not closely related to the South American anteater, despite sharing some characteristics and a superficial resemblance.