A baby giraffe has died just two weeks after its birth surprised zookeepers. The youngster was born to giraffe Sangha at Paignton Zoo in Devon on January 10, to the delight of keepers who had not realised the first-time mother was pregnant. The baby Rothschild's giraffe - a species on the endangered list - was named Kito.
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He was small at birth and struggled to put on weight as his mother found it difficult to feed the new arrival. Keepers intervened to give him extra feeds but he failed to thrive and Kito was put to sleep yesterday. Neil Bemment, the zoo's director of operations and curator of mammals, said: "We had been giving him regular feeds since he was a week old. "After his Monday afternoon feed he was in a semi-collapsed state and unable to hold his head up unassisted. He was also having difficulty breathing.

"Keepers and veterinary staff did everything they could for him but in the end we had to take the decision. "It was hard for us but it was right for him. You cannot let an animal suffer."Kito was put to sleep by the zoo's in-house veterinary team about 6pm local time yesterday. Mr Bemment said staff had been dealing with various concerns about Kito's health for a number of days.

Senior head mammal keeper Julian Chapman said: "From the start he wasn't getting enough milk he needed from Sangha, which is why we had to step in. "Sangha hadn't abandoned him but it seems very likely that either she did not have enough milk, or was simply not allowing him to feed properly."

Zoo spokesman Philip Knowling said: "It is hard when you lose an animal, but you don't go into wildlife conservation for an easy life. Zoos have ups and downs - this is certainly a down."The death has brought back sad memories of the loss of three giraffes, including a calf, in a fire at the zoo in 2006.