The baby aardvark who's keeping zoo staff guessing

Taken with a night-vision lens, these are the first pictures of a 10-day-old aardvark taking its first steps.

The tiny, bald creature is only the third aardvark born in captivity in Britain and has been enclosed in a pen since its birth to mother Oq on 28 December, weighing 3lb.

It makes its public debut at Colchester Zoo this weekend. Aardvarks are an endangered species and staff have mounted a 24-hour vigil over mother and baby.

Zoo spokeswoman Alex Downing said: "Aardvarks are not particularly well-sighted and are nocturnal. A combination of this and the fact they are very clumsy can often result in the baby being crushed. The keepers sit with the baby all day and they take it home in the evening to protect it."

The new arrival will suckle until it is four months old, when it moves on to a diet of fruit, minced beef and dog food. Although zoo staff are delighted at the arrival's progress, they have so far been unable to give it a name.

It is difficult to establish the sex and keepers will have to wait until it is about three months old before they can carry out a DNA test. Colchester is the only zoo in Britain (and one of only two in Europe) to have successfully bred the creatures.