Staff at a St Andrews aquarium are rearing a baby meerkat after it was orphaned by its mother.

Oliver Twist was rejected after birth and is now being hand-reared by surrogate father Stephen McKelvie.

He said: "The first four or five hours is adorable and cute and then it goes kind of downhill from there, feeding every two hours, getting up at all hours of the night worrying about him and the stress of him.

"It's like having a baby, but kind of more adorable and more hairy.

"He's getting stronger and stronger every single day, fatter and fatter too. He's putting on weight which is a good sign."

Oliver Twist is one of 12 meerkats at the St Andrews Aquarium.

Staff hope to reintroduce him into the pack when he has matured.

Mr McKelvie said: "We're going to cover them all in Vicks Vapo Rub, knock all the senses out of them, make them all smell the same and rub the little fellow in the same stuff. Then hopefully they won't even know they've a new member."