Cotswold Wildlife Park sees over 400 births in one year

The new additions include yellow mongoose twins which is the first time the species has bred at the park for 13 years.

Natalie Horner, section head of primates, small mammals and birds, said: “This is the first time since 2011 that we’ve had baby yellow mongooses born here.

Female Yellow Mongoose twins Cinnamon and Clove (Image: CWP)

"The new arrivals are even more welcome as we are the only zoological collection in the UK to have bred this species in the past 12 months."

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This week, both pups have been sexed as female and have been named Cinnamon and Clove by keeper Hayley.

Visitors can see the youngsters, now 13 weeks old, in their exhibit in the walled garden.

One of the Humboldt Penguin pairs, Stephen and Marley, have also produced their first chick together.

Now three months old, the as-yet-unsexed chick recently ventured out of the nest to explore the penguin enclosure with mum and dad.

The new penguin chick at six weeks old (Image: CWP)

This year has been a bumper year for the straw-coloured fruit bats too with eight births so far within the colony, with some of the baby bats already being parked independently as they are getting quite big for mum to carry around.

Cotswold Wildlife Park is one of only three zoological collections in Europe to hold Africa's second-largest bat and the only one to have bred them in the last 12 months.

Elsewhere in the park, keepers welcomed the arrival of a male Bactrian camel.

He is the third calf sired by Louis – named after Prince Louis of Wales as they were both born on the same day – and is the first male calf that Louis and experienced mother Cleo have produced together.

He has been named Kaleb by mammal keeper Willemijn in honour of local celebrity Kaleb Cooper who is a regular visitor to the park with his family.

Kaleb Cooper with head keeper Mark Godwin, left, and curator Jamie Craig (Image: CWP)

Willemijn said: "I also thought it was a great name as they both have the same hairdo, especially when Kaleb was experimenting with different styles in season one of Clarkson's Farm."

The wild Bactrian camel is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is thought to be one of the rarest large mammals on Earth.

Camels have one of the longest gestation periods for a land mammal of approximately 360 to 440 days.

It was also another remarkable breeding year for the Reptile Team. For the first time in the park’s 54 year history, it has successfully bred beaded lizards (Heloderma horridum).

Kaleb the Bactrian camel calf is named after Kaleb Cooper because of his similar hair  (Image: CWP)

Births of this prehistoric-looking reptile are incredibly rare in captivity and the hatchling is the only one to have been born in any UK zoological collection in the last 12 months.

In fact only two other collections worldwide have achieved breeding success with this species in the last year.

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The bearded lizard is one of only two of 3,000 species of lizard which are known to be poisonous - the other being the Gila Monster.

Their salivary glands are modified and contain venom but it appears to be for defence rather than for the apprehension of prey.

Due to its unique ring-like tail markings, keepers have named the as-yet-unsexed hatchling Ringo.

Other breeding successes so far this year include a Potoroo baby (part of the rat kangaroo family), green Aracari chicks, European Spoonbill chicks, Ring-tailed Lemur twins, prairie dog pups and the birth of two tiny Kirk's Dik-dik calves - a dwarf Antelope species on show in the Park's Little Africa exhibit.

A spokesperson said: "These births are testament to the dedication and hard work of the keepers at Cotswold Wildlife Park and the park’s commitment to its ever-growing number of conservation programmes."