LONDON, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A tiny dik dik calf born at Britain's Colchester Zoo needed a helping hand when her mom Daenerys decided motherhood wasn't for her.
It meant keepers have had to play mom to give the young offspring a chance of survival.
They took the difficult decision to hand rear the young calf, and now the new arrival is thriving.
Since being born last month the new arrival has been closely monitored by her keepers and she quickly became receptive to her adoptive parents and is feeding well.
The Kirk's dik-dik is one of the smallest members of the antelope family measuring a maximum of just 45cm high with a maximum body length of only 80cm.
Another feature which makes this small antelope distinctive is its prehensile nose, which can be freely moved around and is slightly forked at the end which helps the dik-dik to grasp food when browsing on bushes.
Males are easily distinguished from the females as they have horns which can grow to 11cm in length.
Colchester Zoo has three adult Kirk's dik-dik in the collection; the calf's mom Daenerys, another female called Daliha and the calf's dad Demetri.
