A Chinese pangolin has been born at Prague Zoo, the first birth of the critically endangered animal in captivity in Europe.

The park said it is doing well after initial troubles.

For the first few days after the baby female was born on February 2, park keepers were worried because it was losing weight.

The reason was found to be that the mother, Run Hou Tang, did not have enough milk.

Following consultations with experts from Taiwan, a programme of artificial feeding with milk from a cat was introduced and the mother was stimulated to produce more of her own.

That turned things around, with the zoo now expressing cautious optimism about the pup, which still has no name but has been nicknamed “Little Cone” because it resembles a spruce cone.

Prague received the rare animals from Taiwan last year, becoming only the second European zoo to keep the species.

Guo Bao, the male pangolin, and Run Hou Tang both came from Taipei Zoo, the leading breeder of the mammals that are hunted heavily for their scales and meat.

It is estimated that almost 200,000 were trafficked in 2019 because of the scales that are used in traditional medicine in Asia and elsewhere.

The pangolins’ arrival in Prague came after relations with China became strained, among other reasons, after Prague decided to revoke a sister city agreement with Beijing and signed a similar deal in 2020 with the Taiwanese capital Taipei.

That agreement also included co-operation between the zoos of the two cities.

Taiwan split from mainland China amid a civil war in 1949, but Beijing considers the self-ruled island part of its territory.

The Czech government recognises the one-China principle but Prague officials said they wanted to focus on cultural and other co-operation, not on politics.