A joyful Christmas gift came from Erfurt Thüringer Zoo Park (DE): Southern White Rhino Marcita, 14 years old, and bull Dino are expecting their second calf together less than 1 year after the birth of their very first one called Kiano.

The mating took place in June 2019, exactly 6 months after Kiano’s delivery, which seems to be the minimum necessary timing for utherus involution and the estrous cycle recovery for an adult and healthy female Rhino after calving. The zoo gathered Marcita’s fecal samples then sent them to Vienna for analysis and few days ago received confirmation: Marcita is pregnant again and she should deliver around the end of 2020!

This second pregnancy is a great achievement for the Southern White Rhino breeeding in Europe: in fact Marcita lived for many years in another facility where she was not able to breed. Her transfer to another zoo and the consequential meeting with bull Dino enabled her to become mother for the first time in just a few months and having two calves in less than two years is a confirmation about the importance of transferring young animals that are not able to conceive in short times.

Little Kiano, who will be 1 year old in a while, will probably live alongside his mother until the arrival of the new sibling. After that he will be probably transferred to another facility where he will stay within a bachelor group for quite some time.