A rare baby camel made his big debut at the Budapest Zoo, the oldest zoo in the world.
Baby Ilias, a male endangered wild Bactrian or Camelus bactrianus ferus species, made its debut at the zoo on Tuesday after being born last week. Ilias was born on April 9 to his eight-year-old mother, Iris. Iris' maternal line has been at the zoo for several generations, AFP reports.
Ilias' father came from a zoo in the north-eastern Hungarian city of Miskolc. Ilias made his debut to the media on Tuesday after he was given some time to bond with his mother according to zookeepers.
"When he was born there were problems, the baby was looking for milk from the mother, but as this was her first baby she had no experience," Zoltan Hanga, a spokesperson for Budapest Zoo told AFP. "Us zookeepers had to hold down the mother and gently help the baby to feed."
Most Bactrian camels are wild and are not domesticated, so Ilias is a rare baby.
About 800 to 900 camels live in the Gobi desert in Mongolia and China, but these small groups are close to extinction according to experts. The Bactrian camel is considered as one of the then most endangered species.
Although it's rare, this wasn't the only Bactrian camel to be born in captivity this year. Another baby was born on March 30 in Yorkshire Wildlife Park located in the English city of Doncaster. The birth of two camels show that the species is fighting against extinction.
Budapest Zoo is located in a city with a population of around 3.3 million people. Since it opened in 1866, the Budapest Zoo is considered to be one of the oldest zoos in the world.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
