Chester Zoo celebrates birth of ‘one of the rarest animals on earth’

Conservationists at Chester Zoo are celebrating the arrival of an exceptionally rare onager foal.

Related to the domestic donkey, the onager is an Asiatic wild ass, which lives in the semi-desert regions of Iran.

The foal was born to mum Azita following a year-long pregnancy. Zookeepers have revealed the new arrival is male and have called him Jasper – a name with Persian origin that means ‘bringer of treasure’.

Similar wild asses were once found in abundance across the deserts of Mongolia, China and Iran, but now very few species remain, and onagers only survive in two small, protected areas in Iran.

They have suffered at the hands of illegal poaching, overgrazing, drought and disease passed from farm animals which has seen their numbers plummet by more than 50% in the last two decades alone, leaving just 600 in the wild today.

As a result, the species has been listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – facing a very high chance of extinction.

Mike Jordan, Animal and Plant Director at Chester Zoo, said: “Onagers are the most threatened equid species in the world and one of the rarest animals that we care for here at the zoo, so we’re absolutely delighted a new foal has been born – he’ll help to boost global numbers of this little-known species.

“The leggy youngster, who has been named Jasper by our team, is doing very well and mum Azita is doing a fantastic job of nurturing and bonding with her new charge.

“He’s full of energy and enjoys playfully kicking up sand as he races around his habitat.

“With numbers having declined so rapidly in the wild, and the species now teetering on the edge of existence in Iran, it’s sadly very possible that onagers could become extinct in the wild within our lifetime.

“That’s why we’re part of an international conservation breeding programme, to ensure there’s a viable safety-net population of onager in zoos.

“In time, Jasper will go on to contribute to these efforts, helping to safeguard this charismatic species and preserve options for their conservation into the future.”

Chester is currently the only zoo in the UK, and one of very few zoos in the world, which works with the animals due to the challenges of breeding and caring for the rare equids.