Staff at Chester Zoo are hand-rearing a baby giraffe born there ten days ago. The 5ft-tall Rothschild giraffe, called Margaret, arrived two weeks prematurely.

She now weighs just over 5 stones (34kg).

Tim Rowlands, team leader of the zoo’s giraffe section, said: “Margaret is one of the smallest giraffe calves we have ever seen. Her mother, Fay, isn’t the largest of giraffes and Margaret was early, which might go some way to explaining her size. Margaret was having difficulty suckling so our keeping team are hand-rearing her and she is going from strength to strength.

“We have a good track record when it comes to breeding giraffes and we are delighted to welcome another to the fold.”

The birth of Margaret, who was named after Mr Rowlands’s mother, has been especially welcomed because there are only 600 Rothschild giraffes left in the wild, where they roam the lowlands of Kenya and Uganda.

Rothschild giraffes live up to 25 years in the wild but longer in zoos. Females grow to 16ft and weigh up to 1.1 tonnes.

Margaret would have scant chance of survival if she were born so early in the wild. She would be easy meat for a number of predators.

Margaret’s story will feature in Zoo Days, a Five series that goes behind the scenes at Chester Zoo.

The series also includes the story of Rafters, the allergy-stricken giraffe who was hand-reared from birth, and that of the potentially dangerous introduction of a male elephant to a female who is unwilling to accept his amorous advances.

Chester Zoo houses 7,000 animals and has more than a million visitors a year.

In November 2006, a Rothschild giraffe named Molly was born at the zoo weighing about 150lbs (68kg). She was the first to be born at the zoo.

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