14 DAY TRIAL // Staff at Edinburgh Zoo have some serious celebrating to do. Thus, it was only a few days ago when a female African Hunting Dog living in captivity at this facility delivered a healthy and quite feisty pup.
Keepers say that, although Jet has never been a mother before, she is doing a great job looking after her bundle of joy, Zoo Borns reports.
Unfortunately for her, the latter appears to be a bit of a headache. Then again, the other members of the pack have accepted it, and have even been spotted bringing it food.
“It’s very bold for such a young age and we’ve often spotted it tugging along joints of meat that are twice its size,” zoo employee Darren McGarry told the press.
“All of the dogs have been seen feeding it and it looks like an established member of the pack,” he added.
The puppy is scheduled to undergo its first health exam in about a week. Besides assessing its overall condition, vets will determine whether it is a boy or a girl.
Presently, only 5,500 African Hunting Dogs are left in the wild, which is why conservationists consider the species to be an endangered one. Habitat fragmentation and hunting are the main reasons the species risks going extinct in the not so distant future.