[Animals] Florida zoo announces birth of southern white rhino

[Jeenyuhs]

Officials at ZooTampa at Lowry Park said the baby was born to a 20-year-old rhino named Alake last week.

 

ZooTampa welcomed a baby southern white rhino to the family. The calf was born during the overnight hours of Sunday, June 6, 2021. The female calf and her mom, 20 -year-old Alake, an experienced mother, are doing well. 

 

Both mama and baby "are doing well," the zoo said in its announcement. "The baby rhino appears to be strong and is nursing alongside her mother."

"This birth marks the 8th southern white rhino calf born at ZooTampa. Alake was paired with male Ongava through the Species Survival Plans (SSP) overseen by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) ensure the survival of these protected species," the zoo explained.

 

The calf, who hasn't been named yet, will join the rest of the crash in the upcoming weeks (a "crash" is the term for a group of rhinos), and guests will be able to see her at the Expedition Wild Africa exhibit when it opens.

 

TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida zoo announced the birth of a southern white rhino, the eighth to be born in Tampa as part of a plan to help the species.

Officials at ZooTampa at Lowry Park said the baby was born to a 20-year-old rhino named Alake last week. The female calf has not been named yet, but both baby and mother are healthy and doing well.

“The baby rhino appears to be strong and is nursing alongside her mother,” the zoo said in a statement posted on its Facebook page Saturday.

 

Alake was paired with the only adult male in the Tampa zoo, Ongava. Their calf will join the crash, or group of rhinos, in the coming weeks, zoo officials said. Visitors will be able to see the baby rhino in the new Expedition Wild Africa attraction, set to open soon.

The zoo says the white rhino po[CENSORED]tion had dropped in the early 20th century to between 50 and 200, but conservation efforts made the po[CENSORED]tion increase to 20,400 in Africa. White rhinos are still classified as near-threatened because of habitat loss and poaching for their horns.

 

Southern white rhinos are the second-largest land mammal on Earth, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and were nearly extinct by the end of the 1800s. Thanks to conservation efforts, they are now classified as Near Threatened, making them the only one of the five rhino species that are not endangered, according to the WWF.

 

PEOPLE

Edited July 21, 2021 by Yeezuz