AN ADORABLE set of twins have been born at a zoo.

Drusillas Park, near Alfriston, has welcomed two baby rock hyrax to its family.

The pocket-sized pups, who were born last week, are yet to be named but a spokesman from the wildlife park said the pair were “making great progress.”

Mark Kenward, zoo animal manager, said the babies were full of energy and ready to explore their surroundings.

He said: “Within a few hours of being born they were running about and climbing around their enclosure – which is pretty impressive.

The Argus: The babies, who were born last week, are yet to be named.The babies, who were born last week, are yet to be named.

“We are always excited by new arrivals at the zoo. They are incredibly popular with the public and are a real pleasure to see.

“However, they will also prove invaluable to the breeding programmes they represent, which have been set up to help ensure a species’ future survival. We just hope we can open soon so everyone can meet the babies.”

Rock hyrax are native to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and, surprisingly, are the closely living relative of the elephant.

Like elephants, rock hyrax have hooves rather than claws, acute hearing and two large continuously growing incisors, similar to tusks.

The hyrax are the latest in a long list of new arrivals born at Drusillas since the introduction of the first coronavirus lockdown in March last year.

The park has since welcomed baby meertkats, common marmosets, silvery marmosets and colobus monkeys.

Mark said that he is looking forward to the day visitors can return to the park and get the chance to meet all the new arrivals.

He said: “All of the zoo babies are doing really well. Everyone is developing as they should and growing up to be big, strong and healthy.

“My wonderful team of keepers have been working around the clock to keep all the animals fed, cleaned, entertained and looked after. They have done such a wonderful job and we really must applaud them.

“It’s funny to think some of our animals will never have seen the public before. The lockdown babies will have only ever met us keepers.

“So it will be interesting to see what they make of everyone returning to the zoo, we’re sure they are going to love it.”