An anteater has given birth at a Connecticut conservation centre, prompting officials there to wonder how the mother conceived.

Officials at the LEO Zoological Conservation Centre said they had removed Alf, the only male anteater, from the enclosure in August, long before the six-month gestation period for baby Archie would have begun. They feared Alf would kill another baby in the pen.

That left the mother Armani, and a young female, Alice, in the enclosure. But Archie was born in April anyway. The director of the conservation centre, suspects this might be a rare case of delayed implantation, when fertilised eggs remain dormant in the uterus for a period of time.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.