Australasian Southern White Rhino herd grew up by one on 18 August 2019, when female Mopani, 23 years old, gave birth to a healthy baby girl in Taronga Western Plains Zoo (AU). The calf is the third female born in a row in Australia, after Imani first and Carrie then in 2018.
For Mopani this calf is the third: she is an experienced mother. The first one, Maceo, unfortunately died few years back, but the second calf, a daughter called Kamari, is well and still at the Facility, as you can see in the video posted on the Zoo Official Facebook page showing the new calf and her mum eating grass.
Mopani’s third calf’s dad is the male called Khulu: according to Official Sources this calf is his last one, since he died at the beginning of 2019. Unfortunately, no further info is available on this matter.
Even if this baby is a huge victory in terms of conservation, we’d like to highlight that it is necessary that all of the Australasian rhino females should reproduce regularly. There are young ones, such as Kamari herself, that are entering the fertile period and must start breeding in the near future, even if this imply that they must be transferred to another Facility. It is well known, in fact, that the mother could suppress the female daughter’s cycle and prevent her to start breeding. With a relatively small herd, this scenario should not happen in the Australasian Program!
Another Indian Rhino was born in the USA: at The Wilds, located in Ohio, mum Sanya, 20 years old, gave birth to a healthy female calf after three sons. The new baby, who has not a name yet, was born on 24 August 2019, probably out in the pasture. She is bonding very well with her mum who is teaching her to have mud bath to protect the skin. This calf is the very first for male Jahi, a young bull arrived at The Wilds in June 2017. Sanya and Jahi’s pairing was recommended by the well known Species Survival Plan (SSP), “a program coordinated by The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) to maintain genetic diversity of threatened and endangered species in human care” (cit. The Wilds Official Facebook page).
And after 4 male Rhinos in a row, Europe finally welcomed a female one! The calf, an Indian Rhino was born to second-time mum Henna, 9 years old, at ZooParc de Beauval (FR), between 27 and 28 August 2019. The calf, who was weighted recently and tipped 72 Kg, has just received the name Anjali, an Hindi word that means “offering”. She is viewable to the public, according to the Zoo official channels. Henna and Anjali divide the exhibit with another adult female called Saathi and her daughter, Anjali’s half sister Sananda, born in 2018. The two calves share the same father, bull Sahib. Anjali is the very first (known!) Indian Rhino born in Europe in 2019.
And in the USA again another Indian Rhino was born at the end of August, precisely on the 30. And he is very special, since is the very first one born in Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium (Nebraska) 120-year history! He has not a name yet, but he’s healthy and exploring attentively his new surrondings. He is the first surviving calf for first-time parents Hellary, 12 years old, and Jontu, 11 years old. The pairing of this couple was difficult for the Zoo Keepers. Indian Rhinos mating could be a very violent act: it took a lot of attempts to achieve the good chemical between the two giants. Anyway, it worthed it, with this very important birth after 16 months of gestation.
This year is revealing as a busy one for the North American metapopulation of Indian Rhinos, with 5 calves born (we remind that this number could not be accurate since the are Facilities that do not share their Rhino births with the public) and with new parents involved! This situation is very important in order to have a population that could be mantained healthy in the years to come!
We have a fantastic news from Japan, where a new baby rhino was born recently! We’ll wait for our fantastic Yuko and one of her articles about him/her in the near future!
