The pygmy hippopotamus spends the day in water, and emerges when they are hungry and will feed on fruits, leaves, roots and grasses

Each zebra has a unique stripe pattern that can be recognised by other family members!

They are quite unusual in that they have lost their thumbs and generally have only four fingers on their hands. Some individuals will have a partial thumb that is not used.

Sealions use their fore and hind limbs for “walking” on the land and mainly use their front flippers for swimming.

L'hoest monkeys have a white ruff that frames the face with distinctive deep set orange eyes. Their bodies are black and have long legs which are grizzled with grey. They have a chestnut coloured “saddle” at the base of their back.

Cameron Sheep have short, fine hair which allows them to keep cool in the African heat.

Pygmy goats are great climbers, browsing on leaves and young branches in the trees.

Hunting dogs, also known as painted dogs each have their own unique coat pattern, with big round ears. Unlike other dogs hunting dogs only have only four toes per foot.

Hunting dogs are threatened by shrinking space to roam in their African home. They are also quite susceptible to diseases spread by domestic animals.

Here at Colchester Zoo we have a number of horses and donkeys that rotate from their stable to their field.

All of our horses are rescues from the World Horse Welfare who rehome horses with us who enjoy human interaction.

There are more than 300 breeds of horse developed for many different uses.

A male donkey is called a Jack, and a female is called a Jenny or Jennet.

Here at Colchester Zoo we have a number of alpacas and llamas that live together in harmony. Though they are often mistaken as each they the most distinguishing physical difference is their size, their hair and face shape.

A fully grown fennec fox only weighs around 1kg and they are the smallest of all the foxes.

The fennec fox's unusually large ears, which can be up to 15cm long, are an adaptation to help them lose heat in the hot desert and to help locate their prey.

KuneKune pigs are found living in the grasslands and bush of New Zealand.

They have a very placid nature and love human contact.

KuneKune pigs are very hairy, have short legs and round bodies.

These small monkeys have a body length that ranges between 20-28 cm, a tail that measures between 33 and 42 cm and an average weight of 430 grams.

Tamarins are highly social and live in a family-like structure in the tropical forests

Sloths are one of the slowest animals in the world, as their leafy diet doesn't provide much energy!

Sloths spend most of their time hanging upside down in the forest canopy.

Golden-headed lion tamarins stick their tongues out at intruders to scare them away.

Coppery Titi monkeys intertwine their tails when their sleeping.

Marmosets have adapted incisor teeth for carving holes i tree trunks to get sap and gum.

Tamanduas are known as "stinkers of the forest" by local people due to the fact the leave scent trails to mark their territory!

Tamanduas have a 40cm long, sticky tongue which is perfect for licking up ants and termites.

When collecting insects, an anteater's tongue can flick up to 150 times per minute, eating up to 30,000 ants per day!

Anteaters are almost blind, but have a keen sense of smell.

In groups, black and white ruffed lemurs produce a chorus of deep, barking, alarm calls, and a wailing howl when defending their territories.

Binturongs mark their territory bu leaving a musky substance that smells like popcorn!

The gelada baboons are the last surviving species of grass-grazing primates, spending ,most of their time on the ground and rarely climbing trees.

The dik-dik is one of the smallest members of the antelope family measuring a maximum of 45cm high.

The blue duiker gets its name from the bluish hairs on its back. Duiker is a Dutch Afrikaans word, meaning to dive, referring to the duiker’s tendency to dive into dense cover when startled.

With their 45-centimetre prehensile, black tongue the giraffe can eat up to 134 kilograms of leaves a day! We have a group of pure-bred reticulated giraffes, all females.

Don't miss the daily feed times where you can get the unique opportunity to hand feed the giraffes yourself!

The white rhinoceros is the largest of the five rhinoceros’ species and one of the world’s biggest land animals. We have a group of five White Rhinos; three females and two males. Our group of Rhinos are part of the ESB breeding programme

Colchester Zoo's charity, Action for the Wild supports rhino conservation in South Africa raising funds for the equipment need to protect both white and black rhinos.

Our group of aardvarks are one of the most successful breeding group of aardvarks in the UK with 9 offspring born since 2007!

As aardvarks are nocturnal you may not be able to spot them outside, so make sure to step inside the burrow to see the group curled up inside!

The largest recorded African elephant weighed an impressive ten tonnes. The African elephant’s brain is bigger than that of any other animal with the skull making up 25% of its body weight.

Don't miss the daily feed times where you can get the unique opportunity to hand feed the elephants yourself!

Wallabies are best known for hopping; however, they can also crawl and swim!

Our wallabies are very friendly, often stopping to sunbathe on the paths and inspect any passing visitors!

The chimpanzee is one of our closet living relatives and is estimated to share 98 percent of our genes.

The grey wolf is the largest wild canid, or member of the 'dog' family. Grey wolves are social animals and the ancestor of all domestic dogs. In the wild they live in packs of 5–10 individuals and have a highly organised social structure.

The lion-tailed macaques name comes from its long tail, which has a tassel at the end like that of a lion.

The mandrill is not only the largest monkey in the world, but it is also one of the most distinctive, with their extremely striking face, with a red stripe down the nose and blue flanges framing it.

Our mandrill troop at Colchester Zoo have a very successful breeding record, with offspring born yearly.

Orangutan means 'person of the forest'

Orangutans are extremely endangered in the wild. The main reason is that their rainforest home is being cut down to make way for palm oil plantations. This is a very high profit crop and it is thought that 10% of all supermarket products contain it. This is causing severe habitat loss, which is causing the dramatic depletion in Orangutan numbers.

Patas monkeys are one of the fastest primates in the world and can run at speeds of 50 kmph.

The Philippine spotted deer is also known as Visayan spotted deer and it is thought that they are mainly nocturnal, emerging at dusk to look for food.

The Pileated gibbons live in socially monogamous pairs so the male and a female live together and rear their offspring together.

Our breeding pair of red pandas are housed in an open air enclosure with a number of different platforms and plenty of space for them to climb and explore.  The enclosure has plenty of bamboo for our individuals to enjoy, as this makes up 95% of their diet in the wild. Bamboo is highly nutritous and red pandas may spend up to 13 hours foraging for this food source as well as consuming 200,000 bamboo leafs a day.

Instantly recognisable for its bright rufous fur, the red river hog is undoubtedly the most strikingly coloured of all wild pigs

We have a group of red river hogs here at Colchester Zoo. These wild species of pig are also known as bushpigs. They have a bristly coat, which can vary from reddish to greyish-brown, and they have a white mane running down their backs. They also have 2 overgrown teeth which protrude out of their mouths as tusks.

Red-bellied lemurs are cathemeral, which means they may be active during the day or night.

Our small group of Red-bellied Lemurs can be seen in the Lost Madagascar exhibit, foraging for food and sunbathing!

We have a successful breeding group of Ring-tailed Lemurs that are part of an EEP breeding programme.

Male ring-tailed lemurs compete for females via ‘stink fights’, smearing scent on their tails and wafting the smell towards their opponent.

Meerkats communicate by using a variety of calls to signal certain situations such as being lost, alarm calls, pup feeding calls, guarding calls and foraging calls.

Smooth coated otters love being in water and use all four paws to ‘doggy paddle’

We have had previous successful births with our Spotted hyena and hope to be able to help maintain the population of this species within the captive environment.

The Visayan warty pig is a dark grey colour, and the body is lightly covered with bristly hairs.  There is a tuft of hair in between the ears and like all pigs, the face is long and ends with a round nasal disc

We have a group of warthogs living within their enclosure at Edge of Africa.

The warthog gets its name from the warts on its face and these warts help to protect the face and eyes from an opponent's tusks when fighting.