Bioparc Zoo de Douè la Fontaine (FR) has switched Eastern Black Rhinos with Dvur Kralove Safari Park (CZ) in order to contribute to the reproduction of this species.
On Wednesday 22 May 2019 the French facility received a young male of 4 years of age from Dvur Kralove. The journey took two days by wheel but Djaoul has already took some steps outside his new exhibit.
Djaoul was brought in has a male companion for one of the two females of the Bioparc: the older one called Tisa. They are not in physical contact yet (this will happen in the following months) to leave Djaoul some time to adapt to his new home. The hope is that Tisa and Djaoul will become a new breeding couple, particullary since the tragic death of the previous male Kata Kata, a really valuable specimen that unfortunately did not sire any surviving calf: last year the park announced his death alongside the artificial insemination of Tisa and since at the moment there are no updates about it we suppose it did not suceeded.
The other female resident, Binti, who spent 13 years of her life here apparently with no success in conceive has been switched with Djaoul, so she is now at Dvur Kralove, which is the biggest holder of Black Rhinos in Europe: it is hoped that a change in environment can enable her to pregnancy. She will probably be introduced to the calmest bull there, Davu (this is of course our personal opinion).
We really hope that this switch can quickly give its result.
