Chester Zoo welcomes another birth as baby 'size of grapefruit'

What's OnWhat's On NewsChester ZooChester Zoo has welcomed a new addition00:01, 12 Aug 2026Chester Zoo is celebrating another birth as its conservation work continues. A critically important piglet has been born at Chester Zoo, as conservationists warn her species is being wiped out in the wild by African swine fever.‌Rana is a babirusa - sometimes called the "pig-deer" - a species found on just four Indonesian islands. They were considered vulnerable to extinction until recently by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), but they will shortly be uplisted to Critically Endangered.‌Since African swine fever reached the islands around five years ago, wild populations have gone into rapid decline, and experts fear the disease could push babirusas towards extinction if a