The Chester Zoo named a baby aardvark Dobby, an iconic house-elf and servant character in the "Harry Potter" movie franchise.
The British zoo named the newborn aardvark due to its hairless, wrinkled skin, and oversized ears.
There are only a few hundred aardvarks in accredited zoos in Europe and across the globe.
Native to sub-Saharan Africa, the population of aardvarks has continued to decrease due to the destruction of their habitat, agricultural development expansion, animal hunting, and exploitation.
Dobby the Newborn Aardvark
Zoo officials at the Chester Zoo in Upton-by-Chester in Cheshire, England, UK, gave the nickname to the aardvark when they noticed its appearance is similar to the "Harry Potter" house-elf.
Within 90 years of history, this is the first time Chester Zoo welcomed a baby aardvark.
Dobby the aardvark, whose sex has not been identified yet, was born overnight on Jan. 4.
Zookeepers mainly take care of the five-week-old aardvark.
According to a press release, the aardvark is being fed for a few hours every evening.
Although the newborn has its mother, the Chester Zoo acknowledged that the baby aardvark must be taken care of first by the zookeepers since aardvark parents are known to be careless with their newborns.
Dobby is only one of the 66 aardvarks in zoos across Europe, and there are 109 aardvarks living in accredited zoos across the world, as per the People website.
Also read: Climate Change Drives Aardvarks Out in Starvation
Aardvark Species
An aardvark (Orycteropus after) is a medium-sized and nocturnal mammal native in sub-Saharan Africa.
Although baby aardvarks tend to be hairless, adult brown or grey aardvarks resemble to be a mixture of other animals, including elephants, kangaroos, and pigs, when they grow up.
According to the National Geographic, the name aardvark translates to "earth pig" in the Afrikaans language.
With their long and pig-like noses, aardvarks tend to have a similarity in appearance with pigs.
Furthermore, aardvarks also resemble the appearance of a kangaroo due to their fur and pointy ears.
Aardvarks, also called ant bears, are insectivores for they eat insects as their main diet. They are known to eat ants, termites, and bugs by sticking their long and sticky tongue just like giant anteaters.
In addition, aardvarks can burrow through the ground to eat their prey.
Population Status of Aardvarks
According to the African Wildlife Foundation, aardvarks can be found in habitats like savanna, rainforests, woodlands, and thickets across sub-Saharan Africa.
In terms of conservation, the aardvarks are classified under the category of "least concern."
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) explained that least-concern species are considered to be not the focus when it comes to the conservation of species bbecause their population is still abundant in the wild.
In this case, the population of aardvarks is still thriving in Africa.
However, the African Wildlife Foundation and the IUCN said the aardvark population in the wild is at risk from the following threats:
1. Hunting - Aardvarks are killed due to human hunting since their meat is eaten. Furthermore, aardvarks' body parts are also used as charms and their teeth are perceived to prevent illnesses.
2. Exploitation - Aardvarks are subject to exploitation in several countries, including Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
3. Habitat loss - The expansion of agricultural development, including the use of fertilizers, destroys aardvarks' food resources such as ants and termites.
Although the population of aardvarks is stable, its population is both decreasing and at risk due to the mentioned threats above.
As a result, some conservation efforts are underway in sub-Saharan Africa to protect aardvarks from being killed or exploited.
Related article: Elephant-Like, Mouse-Sized Mammal Discovered in African Desert
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