British conservationists have captured photographs of two extremely rare pygmy hippos living in the wild in Liberia.

By Steve Connor Science Editor Little is known about the private life of the pygmy hippo except that it spends its days hiding in the swampy shallows of rivers, only to emerge in the dead of night for a bit of furtive foraging on the forest floor.

Aldo looks, eats and lazes like a hippopotamus - but he's only about as big as a human baby, at 21 inches. The pygmy hippo, born this month at the Paris Zoo, is one of only a few dozen in Europe, bred in a special program to boost the rare species.