A St Helens woman has become foster mum to a baby antelope after taking the animal into her care.
Rachel Pilling, a keeper at Knowsley Safari Park, took up the mothering role to look after abandoned roan antelope calf, Pip.
The two-week-old female needs plenty of TLC and regular feeds of full-fat cow’s milk to replace the milk she would have received from her mother, Onion.
Encouragingly, Pip is now doing well enough to go through the night between feeds.
However, Rachel will be laying another place for Christmas lunch as the baby roan will have to stay at her home when the park is closed over the festive season.
Pip’s problems began earlier this month when she was born on the chilliest night of the year so far.
As it was too cold for such a young calf to survive in the open, keepers had to step in to warm her up and give her a vital first feed.
By the time she was strong enough to be returned to Onion, the older roan did not recognise the calf as her own and ignored her.
Fortunately, Pip has now overcome these early difficulties with the help of Rachel who is no stranger to hand rearing having previously fostered both an ankole cattle calf and a baby camel.
Rachel said: “Hand rearing is always a last resort here at the park because once animals have
the human imprint on them, it can be quite difficult for them to rejoin their own kind.
“However, as the roans will be altogether in a heated house over the cold winter month, we have high hopes that she will be able to reintegrate with them successfully by the spring.
“In the meantime, I’ve got rather an interesting Christmas to look forward to. Perhaps Pip and I can watch Bambi together,”
Roan antelope are the Safari Park’s newest exhibit after three females joined the collection earlier this year from Marwell Wildlife Park near Winchester.
Keepers believe that all of them were pregnant when they arrived, so two more calves could soon be on the way.
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