Double celebrations as twin moose are born at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo

© ZSL

Melker the European moose welcomed three-week-old calves Toffee and Caramel on May 21 and the leggy pair, named after the colour of their coats, can already be seen running around their paddock and getting to know their new surroundings.

The duo’s birth comes just a year after Whipsnade welcomed the first calf born at the zoo for a number of years. Called Chocolate in keeping with the sweet theme, he was Melker and Mini’s first born.

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Cliff Tack, head of ZSL Whipsnade Zoo’s northern section, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Toffee and Caramel. At the moment they’re sticking close to their mum and to each other but they’re already developing their own personalities.

“They are beginning to explore their paddock, nibbling on leaves but over the coming months they will become much more independent and adventurous.”

The European moose (Alces Alces) is by far the largest of the deer species. Toffee and Caramel are currently unsexed but adult males can grow to stand more than six feet (two metres) tall at the shoulder.

They are famous for their antlers which are cast off every after year after the mating season and re-grow them once spring arrives - one of dad Melker’s pairs weighted an astonishing 12 lb and 2oz (5.5kg) when they fell off!

Toffee and Caramel can be seen at the zoo’s Wild Wild Whipsnade exhibit where visitors come face to face with the very animals they could once have bumped into in Britain’s rural woodland. As well as the moose family, there are lynx, brown bears, wolves, bison and wolverine, taking visitors back to a time when beasts walked the land, where wolverine peeped out from shady woodlands and moose stalked the forests in days gone by.