Baby Joy as Second White Rhino Is Born at Beauval Zoo

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Baby Joy as Second White Rhino Is Born at Beauval Zoo

October 26, 2011

Something wonderful happened at France's Zoo Parc de Beauval in the middle of the night on Sunday, October 16… a White Rhino was born. The baby, a male, weighed about 176 pounds (80 kg) and the report is that he and Satara, his mother, are doing well — so well in fact that he is already on view through a huge window in the Rhino house.

For now he is sticking close to mom and can be seen nursing. But in a few weeks, he will go out with his mother into the habitat to join the 70 other animals that inhabit the sizeable area, including Wildebeest, Giraffes, and Zebras. His horn will begin to grow when he is 3-4 months old.

This is the second male White Rhino born at the zoo — the first, Kanty, was born in Novmeber of 2009. The White Rhino is particularly endangered due to poaching for the purported value of their horns. Rare in the wild, the White Rhino has an EEP (European Breeding Program) to encourage reproduction, which has proven difficult at zoos.

Photo Credit: ZooParc de Beauval

2 responses to “Baby Joy as Second White Rhino Is Born at Beauval Zoo”

Anne

October 26, 2011

i thought i heard somewhere that the White Rhino was officially considered extinct in the wild…
now i’ll have to go find out either way

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Corey W

October 31, 2011

The White Rhino is actually split into two species – the Southern White Rhino and Northern White Rhino – with the possibility of the Northern White Rhino actually being a distinct species. Oddly enough, the Southern subspecies is considered the most abundant rhino subspecies in the wild (almost all in South Africa alone though) while the Northern subspecies is possibly extinct in the wild with no animals being seen since 2006 (possible siting in 2011 in a completely different country though), and a captive population that is likely not viable, although there is a project working with trying to get a group to reproduce in a semi-wild state (in a country they naturally ranged, but highly controlled to keep them from getting poached), as well as efforts to use semen from a male at the San Diego zoo to inseminate females at the zoo in the Czech Republic (who also happens to be the only zoo to ever breed Northerns) in last ditch efforts.
The animals here are Southern White Rhinos.

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