{"id":167944,"date":"2026-04-02T20:04:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/167944\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:04:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:04:45","slug":"one-of-worlds-tiniest-antelopes-born-the-size-of-bean-can-national-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/167944\/","title":{"rendered":"One of world\u2019s tiniest antelopes born the size of bean can | National"},"content":{"rendered":"

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(Chester Zoo via SWNS)<\/p>\n

By Ed Chatterton<\/p>\n

One of the world’s smallest baby antelopes<\/a> has taken her first wobbly steps after being born at a UK zoo – standing barely taller than a tin of baked beans.<\/p>\n

The tiny Kirk’s dik-dik fawn, named Dotty, was born weighing just a few hundred grams at Chester Zoo on February 17.<\/p>\n

Heartwarmingly, she is being raised with the help of a surrogate father after her biological dad sadly passed away of old age shortly before her birth.<\/p>\n

A new male dik-dik named Dan – who arrived from a zoo in Cumbria in February – has stepped into the role alongside mom Chrissy and adorable pictures show Dotty taking her first steps outside.<\/p>\n

When fully grown, Dotty will still reach just 40cm tall – making her one of the smallest antelopes<\/a> on the planet.<\/p>\n

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Megan Carpenter, assistant team manager of small mammals at Chester Zoo, said: “Dik-diks are naturally very shy animals, so for the first couple of weeks Chrissy’s tiny fawn has been tucked away in a quiet, cosy den, with mom popping back to feed and check on her.<\/p>\n

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(Chester Zoo via SWNS)<\/p>\n

By Talker<\/p>\n

“Now though, she’s beginning to find her feet and we’re seeing those lovely first steps as she heads out on her first little outdoor adventures.<\/p>\n

“In a lovely addition to the story, we\u2019ve also welcomed a new male dik-dik, Dan, as part of the European conservation breeding program.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s already stepped in alongside mom Chrissy to help raise the newborn and it’s wonderful to see the three of them together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The species is often found in the scrublands and mountainous regions of Kenya, Tanzania and Namibia in Africa, where they take their name from the sharp, high-pitched “dik-dik” alarm call they make when startled and as they dart for cover.<\/p>\n

They use their elongated, flexible noses to pluck leaves directly from branches – a unique feature found only in dik-diks – and mark their territory using scent glands beneath their eyes and between their toes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Chester Zoo via SWNS) By Ed Chatterton One of the world’s smallest baby antelopes has taken her first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[55],"tags":[87830,152],"class_list":["post-167944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tanzania","tag-ed-chatterton","tag-tanzania"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116336909694975389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}