Baby Beijing hits the bottle to forget her parent heartbreak

Published on Tuesday 14 October 2008 09:56

IT is a tale which is sure to melt the heart of every zoo visitor.

The baby goral – a perfect cross between an antelope and a goat – was already one of the rarest animals born at Edinburgh Zoo.

But just a day after coming into the world, baby Beijing had to cope with losing her mother and being rejected by her father.

She was hand-reared by zoo staff who worked round the clock as she built up her strength.

Now, ten weeks on, the zoo's newest attraction is fighting fit and preparing to make an appearance.

Keepers Sue Gaffing, Ceri Robertson and Darren McGarry took it in turns to look after the youngster and after two weeks they were the only people baby Beijing would allow to feed her.

Born in the first week of this summer's Olympic Games, and as a Central Chinese goral, keepers felt Beijing was a fitting name.

Senior keeper Sue Gaffing said: "Her mother died soon after the birth, but she had managed to suckle first.

"As far as we know there has never been a goral hand-reared. We didn't know if she would take to being bottle fed, but she's doing really well.

"We started off giving her powdered lamb's milk, but we realised she was more 'goaty' so now we just buy fresh goat's milk from Tesco."

At just three weeks old, keepers began weaning Beijing on to solids and she began eating leaves and grass. Now she munches happily on pellets, apples, cabbage, hay, and her two daily bottles of goat's milk.

Staff have been recording Beijing's progress – from feeding to weight – to be put on an animal archive for other zoos to call on as a resource.

Ms Gaffing admits it will be difficult to say goodbye to Beijing when she has to return to the main enclosure. She added: "It has been pretty tough. Someone has got to come in and feed her, so we've been coming in every day, even on our days off, for ten weeks.

"We think she's great. You get close to all the animals, whether you are hand-rearing or not."

Attempts to reintroduce Beijing to her father did not go well and she was placed with a new family in a neighbouring enclosure.

Once she has been weaned off the bottle, Beijing will be joined by two other young goral who are due to come to the zoo soon, including a male so she can be part of a breeding programme.

NIMBLE AND STOUT

EDINBURGH Zoo is one of only eight in Europe to house goral, of which there are thought to be less than 2000 in the world, and it is believed Beijing is the first of the species ever to be reared by hand.

Goral are extremely nimble and can move at high speed in rocky terrain in their natural habitats of the mountainous regions in China, Korea, The Himalayas and some parts of Russia.

Their stout, long limbs are well adapted to climbing and jumping and keepers have already had to put wooden boards along the top of Beijing's enclosure to stop her from jumping into and becoming tangled in the metal mesh.