White rhino Christmas present for Toronto Zoo
The Toronto Zoo got a special Christmas gift this year, when they welcomed a new addition to their white rhino family. The 62.3-kg calf was born at 10:45 p.m. on Christmas Eve to 7-year-old mother Zohari and father Tom, a10-year-old. It’s the first birth of a white rhino at the Toronto Zoo since 1990, and the fifth in the zoo’s history.
The days-old baby is “notably” big and strong, the zoo reports. He’s been nursing more than expected and has very hairy ears.
Mama Zohari is a restful, calm and protective first-time mother. She and the calf are not currently visible to the public. In November, Zohari was moved from the Zoo’s outdoor rhino habitat to an indoor area. Cameras were set up inside so staff could monitor her as she neared the end of her gestation period, which for white rhinos, lasts about 425 to 496 days and results in a single calf being born.
The first 30 days will be critical, the zoo said. Staff will continue to monitor the mother-son pair in the private maternity area.
The last white rhino born at the Zoo was Atu, a male, born in January 1990. Five years after his birth, Atu left the Toronto Zoo and now lives at Parc Safari Zoo in Quebec.
The white rhinoceros was brought back from the brink of extinction — there were once a mere 20 white rhinos in the wild at South Africa’s Umfalozi Game Reserve. With just 19,682 to 21,077 white rhinoceros left in the wild, the species is listed as near threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. Their status is because of increased poaching for the rhino’s horn in the black market trade.
The zoo is part of the White Rhinoceros Species Survival Plan, with the goal of establishing and maintaining healthy and genetically diverse populations.