Brookfield Zoo Welcomes Baby Dik-Dik Antelope, Among World's Smallest
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Bambi, eat your heart out.
An adorable baby antelope has been born at Brookfield Zoo, and it might be the most precious creature ever to stand on four legs.
The baby Kirk's dik-dik, one of the world's smallest antelope species, weighed only 1.5 pounds when he was born on June 4. When fully grown, the African antelope will weigh 12 to 14 pounds, and stand only 14 to 16 inches tall at the shoulder.
Animal care staff at Brookfield Zoo are hand-rearing the calf, on the advice of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
For now, he's eating chopped hay, and drinking four to five bottles of milk a day. Staff will soon begin feeding him other grains and produce.
While he has access to an outdoor habitat when the zoo is closed, he is not on view to the public. Instead, guests can see an adult pair of Kirk's dik-diks when the zoo is open.
Zoo officials say dik-diks vary in color, depending on their habitat, but are easily identified by their large, dark eyes, which are each surrounded by a white ring.
The zoo has not yet said when the baby dik-dik will make his public debut at the zoo.
