Visitors to the popular tourist attraction will now be able to say 'hello' to four week old Pi.

Born on October 23 Pi has unusual markings and has been described as " like a watermelon on legs".

Malayan tapirs are related to the horse and rhinoceros family and are characterised by their large stocky bodies and long noses which they use to reach food sources, such as leaves.

Pi's mum and dad Gladys and Elmer, have been very successful parents, producing a total of eight calves since they arrived in Belfast Zoo in 1994.

The zoo has been one of the most successful European Zoos in breeding the Malayan tapir with a baby born every 1.5 years.

They live up to 30 years in the zoo and in the wild.

However they are classed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened species with fewer than 50 in European Zoos.

The average pregnancy lasts 13 months meaning Gladys has spent 60% of her life in Belfast pregnant.

As part of the global breeding programme, Belfast Beni, a male tapir born in January 2006, will soon migrate across the Atlantic to Denver Zoo in an effort to support the species. More recently, Aya, a female tapir born in Belfast in 2002, began her new life in Amsterdam Zoo, and has recently given birth to a second generation of tapirs.

But Pi will be in good company as three giraffes, a lion cub, four bongos, a sitatunga, royal python, a lion tailed macaque and a sea lion have also been born at Belfast Zoo in the past few months.