Cotswold Wildlife Park is celebrating the 50th birth of a Chapman’s Zebra at the park, marking an important milestone in the Park’s history.
The new born, named Flora, is the tenth offspring of parents Stella and Spongebob, signifying a remarkable success to the Park’s breeding programme.
Cotswold Wildlife Park is the only zoological collection in the UK to have successfully bred the African species so far this year.
Visitors can meet the latest addition to the Zebra family opposite the large Rhino paddock in the Park.
Tracing back its history, Cotswold Wildlife Park welcomed its first Zebras, a pair of Grevy’s Zebras back in 1972, originally purchased from the Copenhagen Zoo a year earlier.
The male Zebra was "exceedingly trusting for a stallion Zebra".
The pair were first shown to the public in March 1972, making the national press when one of them was captured by a photographer chasing a White Rhino around the paddock.
Later, in 1978, eight years after the park had opened to the public, the Park welcomed its first Chapman’s Zebra, a species named after revered conservationist William Chapman.
Since then, the Zebras have been an integral part of the Park community, symbolising its ethos by replacing the Red Panda in the Park’s original logo.
Curator of Cotswold Wildlife Park, Jamie Craig, said: "Repeating successes can be tricky when breeding animals, so to have reached the milestone of fifty foals since we opened is a real triumph for all the dedicated keepers, past and present, who have cared for our Zebras over the years at the Park".
Flora has been impressing the visitors with her pace, galloping across the paddock.
The need for speed becomes crucial for the Zebras’ survival in the wild, as they outwit predators such as Lions and Hyenas.
Zebras are capable of running at speeds exceeding 35 miles per hour, with foals getting on their feet soon after birth, and being able to run with the herd a few hours after being born.
In addition to the birth of Flora, 2023 has been a milestone year for the Cotswold Wildlife Park.
The Park not only became the only zoological collection in the UK to breed the critically endangered Greater Bamboo Lemur, but it also stood as the single global zoological collection to breed Mexican Leaf Frogs.
Additionally, Cotswold Wildlife Park welcomed the birth of two White Rhinos, within a week in August, taking the tally to a total of 11 Rhino calves in 11 years.
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