It may not be pretty - but staff at Port Lympne are proud of this new brown hyena.

Seen in pictures for the first time, the hyena, pictured above, arrived at the Kent animal park with its potential mate last month.

It is the first time in more than 15 years that brown hyenas have made their home in the UK.

It is hoped the pair, from Prague, will breed.

The brown hyena is a near-threatened species with fewer than 10,000 living mainly in the Kalahari and Namib deserts of southern Africa.

Less than 50 of the species are registered as captive animals in Europe and approximately 100 are in captivity worldwide with just two in North America.

Factfile

• A brown hyena is the largest land animal to derive most of its diet from scavenging

• It is known to supplement its diet with fruit and vegetables.

• In the wild, the brown hyena lives in small clans, although males are often solitary nomads.

• Although they are not known to hunt as a group they work together to defend their territory and any find.