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Visitors go ‘Potty’ for new piglet Harry
Tuesday 8 July 2008
A new piglet is quite literally hogging the limelight after becoming the first warthog to be born at ZSL London Zoo for nearly 100 years.
© ZSL - Lynsey Ford
Keepers have named the new baby Harry in a tribute to JK Rowling’s young wizard Harry Potter because Hogwarts is nearly warthog spelt backwards.
Harry, who was born two months ago to mother, Aziza, and father, Little Vern, is now part of the Zoo’s first ever warthog family, leaving visitors ‘spellbound’.
The piglet isn’t the first Potter to grace the Zoo grounds; in 2000 the makers of the film filmed the Burmese python scene for the 2001 film 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'. A plaque inside the Zoo's Reptile House commemorates the event.
© ZSL - Lynsey FordVisitors to the Zoo’s 'Into Africa' exhibit can come and see Harry being fed vegetables three times a day and sometimes playing ‘piggy in the middle’, sleeping in between his parents.
Senior Keeper of Mammal’s North, Gerald Asher, said: 'Aziza is very protective and motherly of Harry, at first Little Vern couldn’t get near, but now they both take turns to be with him.
'According to our records Harry is the first warthog baby born at the Zoo in nearly 100 years – so he is a very special piglet.'
Watch footage of Harry below:
