Last updated at 19:56 30 January 2008

When a baby is hungry and mum's not there, she has to stick her neck out and show a little trust.

Margaret the Rothschild giraffe is being hand-reared at Chester Zoo after arriving two weeks prematurely and struggling to feed from her mother Fay.

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Tim Rowlands, team leader of the Giraffes section, said: "At 5ft tall, Margaret is one of the smallest giraffe calves we have ever seen.

"Fay isn't the largest of giraffes and Margaret was also early which might go some way to explaining her size.

"Margaret was having difficulty suckling so our keeping team are now hand-rearing her and she is going from strength so strength.

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

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The birth of Margaret - who is named after Mr Rowlands's mother - has been welcomed as there are only 600 Rothschild giraffes left in the wild, mainly in the lowlands of Kenya and Uganda.