We open this new post, that as ususal collects many more “news” from Rhino world, with a sad announcement from Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden (Oklahoma, USA). Just few days after becoming a father, Indian Rhino Arun, 30 years old, passed away, probably during the night of Thursday 29 October 2020. The Keepers discovered him in the morning. At the moment, the cause of the death isn’t known. A postmortem exam will be performed in the next days. A source claims that he started to show an abnormal behavior, becoming more lazy and not willing to do training session. Anyway, he let the Vet team to collect blood and the results did not show any abnormalities. Arun arrived at the Zoo in 2019 and was recommended to breed with Niki, the younger resident female. Fortunately, they were able to become parent of a female calf, born 10 days ago. The Zoo Facebook post says “Though we are sad by his loss, we know Arun’s legacy will live on through his daughter. We look forward to watching her grow and are hopeful she too will contribute to the survival of this species through a successful breeding program.”. We can add that this guy was able to sire many calves in the past, as you can see on his personal ID page. His legacy will continue through the ones still alive.

A gorgeous and unexpected news comes directly from Fresno Chaffee Zoo! Southern White Rhino pair, Kayla and Tim, have just welcomed their third calf in less than three years. It is a huge success and represent a real exception in Southern White Rhino “terms”: it is pretty rare that a single pair of this species of Rhino to reproduce so smoothly and frequently, usually the better results in term of calves born are obtained with the females kept in groups. Kayla and Tim seem not to care and the calf is their first female! She has not received a name (to be honest, her date of birth is still not known for sure), but it has been said that mom and baby are doing very well and won’t be on exhibit soon.

Also, we have a news from Cuba, even if it is not fresh at all, since it comes from September 2019. At the Zoológico Nacional de Cuba, on 6 September 2019 a baby Southern White Rhino female was born! She received the name “Esperanza Mel” which could remind the English word “hope”. A source claims that in 2012-2013 some young specimen of Southern White Rhinos were imported from Namibia, in particular they were three females and two males. One of those females, called Katherine, successfully bred with the resident male, Kiara, and the pair welcome their first daughter in 2019. It is not clear how many Southern White Rhinos do live now at the Zoo: it seems there are six, two males and four females, included the little calf. Moreover, the Zoo holds four Southern Black Rhinos. Since we have no more detailed information, we ask for the help of Rhino lovers from South America! You can contact us through our pages!