From now on we will try to stick to a more accurate plan: we will as always continue to update constantly the various ID an zoo pages, but a related post (probably splitted in different parts on different days) with some more details will be published on a monthly basis.
RHINO BIRTHS
The long waiting for a Eastern Black Rhino female calf has ended for Europe: Chester Zoo (UK), almost two weeks after her birth and with a huge use of the marketing channels (to which the zoo is cleverly dedicated), has announced the arrival of a female baby in its crash of Rhinos. Czech Republic’s born Ema-Elsa, experienced fourth-time mum, has given birth on 29 October 2020 (please, note that the official date of birth is not known) to a healthy daughter. The new calf, which of tradition has been named after the letter “K”, Kasulu, follows her half-brother Gabe after almost 5 years, a really long inter-birth time. She is the third female calf that Ema-Elsa conceived with male Magadi, a bull that has sired many calves in the past and is still in his prime, eagerly to be again father, hopefully, in Flamingo Land where he resides now.
According to a sources, it has been said that there is a plan for the future, even if it is a little “smoky” and really uncertain, concerning the transfers of both Ema-Elsa and her calf in African land. Actually, we do not know if the plan could be really implemented. Anyway, we can see that Chester Zoo continues his high breeding tradition but does it slightly slower than hoped.
In the Netherlands, Eastern Black Rhino Naima, almost 9 years old, has given birth to the third Black Rhino ever in Rotterdam Zoo. The first birth, anyway, dates back in 1960: Laura, that was the name of the first calf, has contributed to the actual meta-population of Eastern Black Rhinos in Europe (you can search her legacy through her grand-daughter Arusha and lately grand-son Baringo II in our IDs pages). Coming back to our time it must be reported that, following his full-sister Mara, in December 2017, the new calf, a healthy and strong male, was born on 8 November, curiously during his own father’s birthday, Vungu. The calf has received the name Nasor, which is a tribute to the caretaker from Tanzania who arrived in Rotterdam Zoo with the first black rhino in 1931. Mum and calf are viewable through webcams that the Zoo has kindly prepared for the happy event.
With this calf, the European meta-population of Eastern Black Rhino has had three calves for 2020! A success but still far away from the 6,7,8 calves arrived in recent years. We can infer that since the meta-population has become self-sustainable there’s been a little hiccup in the breeding, which we hope can be overcome in the following years with the formation of new breeding couples (without forgetting about the old ones).
Surprisingly White Oak let us know after 4 months from his birth about new calf Rocky, the second Southern Black rhino calf born from Little Bit and Tyson. He was named Rocky after Rocky Balboa and according to what we can see he seems doing well. He also had an older brother, Tidbit, whom unfortunately was rejected from his mother and died of unknown reasons when he was one year old. We are very happy to know about this birth because, as many of you already know, the facility is reluctant in sharing information about its huge crash of rhinos.
Sweden is going great with her little crash of Southern White Rhinos: on 13 November experienced mom Imfolozi gave birth to her seventh calf, a male called Amadi. He’s her very first son to survive the birth process: suddenly and curiously her very first son was stuck in the birth canal. It is not known if he died before the birth or during the process. Anyway Imfolozi wasn’t able to pull him out; at that time vet were able to help her. The story repeated itself with Amadi: it was a difficult birth because the male calf was again stuck. Fortunately this time things went very well and Imfolozi and Banyari fifth calf is well and alive. It’s really strange that with female calves Imfolozi never had any issue: maybe it has something to do with the size of the babies. We want to remind that there is another adult female in Kolmarden called Namakula: unfortunately she was never able to conceive a calf.
Not much far away Boras Zoo also welcomed another male southern white rhino calf. This time mom Mashikishiki and dad Bhasela welcomed Kazai on 11 November: for the mom is the third calf in 4 years considering that she began giving birth at 15 years of age. In Boras also lives another adult female called Zinzi: unfortunately after the arrival of Mashikishiki she was never able to produce a calf again. Maybe it could be a good idea to switch Namakula and Zinzi between the two Swedish facilities in order to try stimulating them?
We also want to highlight the great success of both those small crashes of rhinos that were able to produce calves in a very short interval period.
At The Wilds in Ohio three Southern White Rhino babies arrived in less than two weeks: while about the third and last one, a male born on 24 December, we do not know any information, the first two were born from two first time moms, specifically two full sisters: Kifaru alias Kate gave birth to a female calf on 8 December and then Kali gave birth to a male. The two calves share the same father Roscoe. We are over the moon because both Kifaru and Kali spent their entire life with their mom Sally and we feared that she could suppress their cycle. Fortunately this did not happen: Sally and another adult female called Evey left the facility in November this year. The first one went to Tulsa Zoo in Oklahoma and the second to Rolling Hills in Kansas where they represent the future hope for the arrival of new calves. At The Wilds remains only an adult female called Firefly, 9 years old, that has never given birth before: we do really hope that she could start very soon (or maybe she has already began…).
San Diego is another facility from which we usually receive very delayed information: it’s a very recent news that the zoo had a third white rhino calf. Thanks to our teammate Harish S. we found out that the calf is a male called Arthur born in the field of the Safari Park on 2 August. He developed an infection a few days after birth and he was separated from mother, hand reared and then, when he fortunately fully recovered, he was placed under the care of a surrogate mother, a female called Libby (Livia) at the Nikita Khan Rhino Rescue Center, a separated facility near the safari park. We know that Arthur is very well and has bonded with the his step-mother. Unfortunately we do not know anything about his biological mother and his father. We presumed he could be again a J. Gregory‘s son and maybe the his mom could be female Kiazi (but it is a mere speculation due to the fact the other adult female, besides the two that already gave birth in 2020, are two really young ones, Ahadi and Kianga). When we will have more details we will update the IDs accordingly.
Virginia Safari Park mentioned in a Facebook post in September that a female Southern White rhino calf was born in the crash. The female calf received the name Sarah: since the facility always followed the rule of naming the calf with the same initial as the mother, she should be the third baby for Samira. Unfortunately apart the fact that Sarah’s dad is the male Leroy we don’t know any more details. Also we recall that Virginia Safari Park announced that both the breeding females were pregnant and should have give birth in September/October, but at the moment we know nothing about Kya.
We are a little bit concerned about this Safari Park because it’s seems not in the AZA circuit: it still holds the four previous calves, a female and three males, that given their young age have to be quickly moved otherwise there could be consequences. In fact the female calf could be covered by her father and the three males could begin fighting (unfortunately it happened before that a young male was killed by an adult one).
Another gorgeous news arrived from Erfurt in Germany: mom Marcita and dad Dino welcomed their second calf on 28 November, less than two years after their first one born in 2018. Mom Marcita is also a female that began giving birth quite late, at nearly 14 years old. This calf has been named Tayo just like the one born in Colchester Zoo, so in 2020 we have two Tayo that pile up with at least 3 more Tayo born in previous years. We would love that the facilities could be more inventive with new names 😀
Erfurt is going to renew its external exhibit: in fact it has waved goodbye to older female Numbi that has left for Augsburg Zoo and it will probably wave temporarily goodbye to Dino in spring. It’s not clear if the bull will return or will be replaced by a new one. Anyway zoo officers have assured that they not want to break this successful streak.
Last but not least a female baby Southern White rhino was born at South Lake Safari Park (Dalton in Furness, UK). Second time mom Zukiswa “Zuki” and dad Mazungu welcomed Iniko on 30 December 2020. A gorgeous name that means born in troubled time.
We finish here the first part of our post asking again to everyone that has more information to contact us through our email or Facebook Page. We will answer as soon as possible. We want also to reiterate that every news that we publish is carefully double-checked and trustworthy: of course if something is missing let us know, we are trying to do our best. We are writing this because someone criticized us for not being perfectly updated: we aim to be as fast as possible in our work, but it’s really an enormous effort and our team is really small. We again thanks anybody that help and follow us.
