A rare ‘pig-deer’ has been born at Chester Zoo in England, as a deadly disease pushes the species towards extinction.
Rana is a babirusa – an unusual species of pig found on just four islands in Indonesia – and was the size of a ‘grapefruit with legs’ when she was born, weighing just a few hundred grams.
The piglet’s arrival comes as African swine fever devastates babirusa populations in the wild.
The species was previously classed as Vulnerable but is set to be uplisted to Critically Endangered following a dramatic decline in numbers.
A recent camera-trap study on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, supported by
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