Connecticut anteater's baby shock. Who's the daddy?

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

Germany Zoo

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 tell the Greenwich Time they had removed the only male anteater from the enclosure in August, long before the six-month gestation period for baby Archie would have begun. They feared that male, Alf, would kill another baby in the pen. That left the mother Armani, and the young female, Alice, in the enclosure. But little Archie was born in April anyway. Marcella Leone, founder and 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. Delayed implantation happens occasionally for about 100 different mammals, including rodents, bears and marsupials, particularly when they feel like their is risk to their own lives or to their offspring's. During delayed implantation the embryo does not immediately implant in the uterus, but is maintained in a state of dormancy. Little to no development takes place while the embryo remains unattached to the uterine wall and the normal gestation period is extended for a species-specific period of time.