We begin the year with a double news that already shows us the two sides of the same coin: we have in fact one joyful news and a very saddening one.

The joyful event was in Singapore Zoo (SG) where mom Donsa gave birth to her 12th calf on 19 December 2019. The birth process went very quickly and smoothly, as you can see from a video published from Singapore Zoo official Facebook page. The baby is a female and her father is the residing male Hoepel. Singapore Zoo confirms its success in breeding this specie: with all the breeding females (a total of 3) that are currently in calving process. In 2018 Singapore Zoo joined the European rhino breeding program (EEP) so we wish that transfers will be done between Europe and Singapore to improve rhino genetics as happened in 2019 with the arrive from Ramat Gan (IL) in Switzerland.

The sad news is, instead, the death of Jacob: it happened in Pont Scorff (FR) on 31 December 2019. He was the only Eastern Black rhino in the facility. Death cause is still unclear: the animal seemed to be suffering from quite some time with diarreah, anorexya and a cutaneous illness that lead to ulcers (wounds that never heal). Jacob was only 28 years old and, unfortunately, leaves behind no offspring. We knew something was amiss in the zoo since this male was alone after the death of his companion, female Siwa. The zoo seemed also to have bern bough by an NGO with the plan of transforming it in a facility to helping the recovery of problematic animals and then free them back in their natural habitat: unfortunately Jacob’s fate was different.