We can now announce what we have known for a while but decided not to unveiled before Zoo made the official announcement.
Back in October 2017, precisely on Monday the 2nd, the second Southern White Rhino lady Nancy gave birth to a female calf, baptised Belle by the Rhino Keepers. Unfortunately, the little calf was born with an injury on her leg that impeded her to stand up and reach the Mum’s nipples. This moment is truly important for both calf and mum, since without this first contact the two can’t bond properly. It is not known if Nancy rejected the calf, but the baby needed to be separated from her in order to receive immediate vet treatment and then she had to be hand-reared. At the moment, Zoo revealed through the official Facebook page, that Belle is bottle fed 5 times a day with 42 litres of milk in total.
Belle is being carefully introduced to her mum again. That is really important for her future development and social life: she has to learn how to behave as a Rhino.
You can check Belle’s progress here.
