This tiny baby quail in the photo - no bigger than a two pence piece - is one of eight lucky chicks to be saved from certain death, a zoo spokesman said yesterday.

The four-day old and his brothers and sisters were the first clutch from one of the quail at Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire. But, today, a spokesman said the first clutch is usually left to die, but these tiny birds had been saved by staff. Kim Riley said: "We don't know why, but each year she lays her first clutch, then just abandons them rather than sitting on them, so they die.

"It's only the first clutch, the next clutch she will sit until they lay. We don't know why she does it, she just does.

"So instead of leaving them this year, we put them in an incubator and now we've got eight healthy baby quail.

"They're beautiful, they look like tiny bumble bees and none of them are bigger than a two pence piece."

The chicks are being kept in the Pets at Twycross section of the zoo, where children can touch and learn about pets from around the world.