The first sun bear cub to ever be born in the UK has emerged from its den for the first time at Chester Zoo… in very wobbly fashion!

The little cub – which does not yet have a name - had several minor tumbles as it tried to keep up with mum, Milli.

The chunky youngster was seen exploring its heated indoor habitat at the zoo in front of enthralled visitors before the sleepy-eyed cub headed back to the den for some more cuddle-time with mum.

Tim Rowlands, Curator of Mammals at Chester Zoo, said: “The new cub has plenty of enthusiasm but, at just 12 weeks old, it is still somewhat wobbly on its legs. It’ll soon find its feet though and it won’t be long until mum Milli really has her paws full. Her little one will quickly gain in confidence; become more and more excitable and look to explore. That’s when her parenting skills will be given a new test. We’re sure she’ll come through it with flying colours though – she’s proving to be a great mum so far.”

The new arrival is the first healthy cub for mum Milli and dad Toni who, as young bears, were both rescued from illegal wildlife traders in Cambodia who killed their mothers and kept them as mistreated pets.

After being cared for by conservationists working for the Free The Bears organisation, the duo then moved to the Rare Species Conservation Centre in the UK, before arriving at Chester Zoo.

Now, the pair have completed their recovery and become parents to the UK’s first sun bear cub.

Mike Jordan, Collections Director at the zoo, added: “These bears had a really tough start to life and so to now see Milli thriving with a cub is ever so special. It’s the wonderful culmination of an awful lot of hard work by numerous conservationists – here and in Cambodia - who have fought to give her a brighter future. The cub is the shining beacon of light at the end of what, at one stage, was a very dark tunnel.”

Sun bears – the smallest of the world’s eight species of bear - are highly threatened in their native South East Asia where they are found in declining populations in Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, India, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Already, they are now thought to be extinct in Singapore, where they were once found in large numbers, and are close to being wiped out in Bangladesh and China.

They are listed as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – a result of widespread habitat loss to make way for palm oil plantations, the illegal wildlife trade, human-wildlife conflict and hunting for its body parts, which are used in traditional Asian medicines, although there is no scientific evidence that they have medicinal