Just few days ago we report the birth of Ravy, a baby Southern White Rhino born to the youngest breeding female, Sofie, at Safari Park Beekse Bergen, in The Netherlands. We have just learned with regret, from a Dutch sources published online back in August, that one of the other females residing at the Facility was euthanized urgently in late July 2020 after a trauma. Yvonne, who unfortunately never produced calves, is said to have broken the Achilles’ tendon (a important ligament of the back legs) during a mating attempt. This female Rhino was born 30 years ago at the same Facility with many other full-siblings: of them only Christian, now living in France, successfully reproduced!
New Rhino transfers are taking place in the world.
At the beginning of October, Safari Park Dvůr Králové in Czech Republic, the biggest holder of Rhinos in the EEP, has received two new breeding male. Southern White Rhino Kusini , 24 years old, arrived from Germany where he has lived many years without being introduced to the resident females. This male became popular in 2019 when he became enraged and flipped over a Keeper car in the Safari Park, luckily without consequences for the person who was driving the car. At his arrival in the new place, the male was described as gentle and calm: his role will be to stimulate Pamir, the other resident male, to mate actively with the crash of females. Moreover, Officials said that Kusini himself will have the opportunity to be introduced to the resident females. This male is important in term of genetics since he was born in San Diego Safari Park so his blood is not represented in Europe. We really hope that he will successfully sire some calves, but we fear it could be really difficult: Kusini was transferred many times in his past, and often the reason was the incompatibility to be mixed with females!
The second new breeding male is Eastern Black Rhino Embu: from Chester, he will be introduced to one or more of the females at the Safari Park.
In the USA, young bull Southern White Rhino Jiwe has just arrived at Seneca Park Zoo (New York, USA). He was born in December 2016 in Fossil Rim (Texas, USA) to a first-time mum that rejected him. He was then successfully hand-reared by Keepers. Jiwe will be joined in the near future by another young bull, which should be around 2 years of age.
With the arrival of Jiwe, the older residing male Bill should have departed and reached his new destination: Riverbanks Zoo & Garden, in South Carolina. He’ll become the breeding male in a crash composed by two young females, Kande and Winnifred, that were placed for the very first time in a breeding situation.
Another moved took place between The Wilds, in Ohio, and Rolling Hills Zoo, in Kansas. Southern White Rhino Evey, almost 14 years old, left her big crash to be introduced in the near future to Uzazi, the lonely male Rhino at Rolling Hills Zoo. This move was recommended by the Species Survival Plan (SSP) of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), which both Zoos mentioned are members. Evey has successfully given birth three times prior, now it is hoped that with Uzazi things will go very well, too. Even if we are happy to see that Zoos in America start to switch their females, we are a little bit surprise of this precise choice: at The Wilds there are at least three adult females that never produced calves at this time, who are still there; all of them were born there and reside with their own mothers in the crash. It is widely known that a mother could suppress the daughter and prevent her to breed. Moreover, single couple of Southern White Rhinos rarely produces calves (there are some exceptions, of course!), so we hope another female will join Evey in the near future!
