Cotswold Wildlife Park has welcomed the latest addition to the Chapman’s Zebra family – an energetic female foal who has been attracting the attention of visitors with her incredible speed even at just a few days old.

Normally keepers are given the task of naming newborns, but music royalty – Spice Girl Geri Horner – recently paid the Park a visit and was given the rare honour of naming the foal, which she called Geri.

Only two other animals in the Park’s history have been named by well-known visitors – back in 2009, two new female Rhinos arrived from Mafunyane Game Farm in South Africa.

One was named Nancy by then-Prime Minister David Cameron in honour of his daughter, and the other was named Ruby by comedienne and friend of the Park, Ruby Wax.

Cotswold Wildlife Park has been home to zebras since 1976.

The first Chapman’s Zebra arrived at the Burford collection in 1978, eight years after the Park first opened to the public in 1970.

This latest arrival is the forty-sixth Chapman’s Zebra to be born at Cotswold Wildlife Park – a testament to its successful breeding programme. The newborn is the fourth foal from mare Stella to be sired by stallion Spongebob. Visitors can see the youngster in the Zebra enclosure opposite the Rhino paddock.

Curator of Cotswold Wildlife Park, Jamie Craig, said: “Zebras are a real icon of the Park and have featured in our logo for many years.

“For our visitors, Zebras really do bring a sense of the wild to this part of the world and there is nothing more rewarding than the sight of a new foal grazing in the stunning backdrop of the Cotswold countryside.”