We start this new long post deeply grateful to our friends Cooper Y. and Alvaro Sanchez. While the second one donated to the site some beautiful pictures – Krefeld Zoo, Parque de la Naturaleza de Cabàrceno, Bioparc Valencia, Duisburg Zoo, Barcelona Zoo – the first helped us compiling the data of all the Indian Rhinos in Japan, together with almost all the pictures of everyone, and gave an important hint to start the Southern White Rhino IDs as well, with Himeji Central Park and Nishimuro Wakayama. About the latter, we can report that in 2018 three young Rhinos were imported, in the hope to refresh the resident crash and eventually have new baby rhinos on the way in the future! While Japan has been very successful in reproducing its small meta population of Eastern Black Rhinos, that is not the case for its Southern White. The last baby was born at least more than 20 years ago.

This post is going to talk about Baby Rhino Births and about some Rhino mum Pregnancies!

Four gorgeous rhino ladies born in a row
Three babies Southern White Rhinos were born few days apart in the month of July and one was born in August.
The first one is from Australia and was born at Monarto Safari Park. She is the third baby for Rhino couple Umqali and Satara: curiously all of them have been females.
Mum Umqali, roughly 26 years old, was announced pregnant just few weeks prior to give birth to her 7th calf, in May. She in fact gave birth to her new daughter during the evening of 22 July. The birth was seen on camera by Keepers that could witnessed a smooth and rapid birth, without any complication.
This particular birth is full of meaning for Umqali: beside giving birth to so many calves, only one of them, a male called Kei is alive. All the others dies at young ages for different reasons. Moreover, her last two daughters died at 1 year and half, for accidental death: probably the introduction of the mum to a male Rhino for new breeding purpose went too roughly and both the young calves suffered severe trauma and died in few days. We do really hope that this time it won’t happen anymore. Even if we are for reduce the inter birth interval between a calf and another in general, this time we suggest that, if things went just how we learnt from other sources, it could be worth it to delay the reintroduction in a moment when the calf, weaned, will be naturally separated by the mother. Umqali’s new daughter, anyway, is thriving at the Facility, under the watchful eye of her experienced mum.
The second baby female was born on 23 July in California, at San Diego Safari Park. She is the fourth baby for her mum Kacy and her dad Maoto. Till now, we do not know if she has been named. Of course, any baby rhino matters, but we must highlight some issues: in the big crash at San Diego Safari Park only Kacy is breeding regularly. In 2016 it was published a paperwork that celebrated the change in the diet and two subsequent births of baby rhinos from two adult females whom never successful bred before, but at least 5 years are passed and Kacy is still the only one that is breeding! Also, her previous daughter, born in 2015, is still at the park, as far as we now. And she’s approaching sexual maturity. We repeat that it is really important to divide mother and daughter, since the oldest tend to suppress the cycle of the younger, preventing the latter to breed. From what we manage to understand, Kacy may be a dominant female. Moreover her daughter must be transferred in a new crash in the near future.
The third baby rhino female was born at the end of July (at least, we thought so, because no official information has been released yet) at Cotswold Safari Park (UK). She has been named D’ora and is the fourth daughter for Southern White Rhino pair Nancy and Monty.
The last one was born on 14 August in Auckland Zoo (NZ). She’s the first daughter for mom Jamila and she has not received a name yet. This calf is very important for the Australasian Southern White Rhino meta population: her mom is the only one among the first-generation or captive-born females (it means that is a female calf born to a mother that was born in the wild) that was able to reproduce! Unfortunately, in Australia and in New Zealand there are many more young females, more or less the same age than Jamila, that are placed in a breeding situation, but till now there are no news for successful pregnancies.
Jamila’s calf is said to be strong and healthy; her father is experienced bull Zambezi. Jamila was firstly introduced to Zambezi’s son, Inkosi, that has never sired a calf, but probably there would be a switch between the bull, with Zambezi who take things in his stride. Maybe, one day, Jamila will meet Inkosi again.

Some Pregnancies!
There are many Rhinos that are expecting a baby in 2020, as we posted before, but we can say that Eastern Black rhino Kumi, in Magdeburg, is not pregnant (diversely from what it was announced by the Facility) and that is because the introduction to Madiba was not successful. Moreover it seems that the pair is not getting along well at all.
Some sources declare, moreover, that Indian Rhino Rapti in Munchen (DE) is heavy pregnant, but we cannot confirm that.
Also, thanks to a member of the Zoochat website, we happen to find out that the Southern Black rhino breeding is having a renewed interest. At El Coyote Ranch (a private facility in Texas) an adult female rhino (unfortunately we do not know her name) gave birth to a healthy baby girl in 2019 and another calf is expected in 2020. It is very probable that we will see moves between Australia and USA meta populations in the near future; even the King of Eswatini, according to this document, has expressed interest in breeding the species!