- Title: GERMANY: Germany's Erfurt zoo proudly presents its new rhino baby.
- Date: 26th January 2007
- Summary: VISITOR WATCHING
- Embargoed: 10th February 2007 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Nature / Environment
- Reuters ID: LVA2VO8AC36Q9TNOB48N1DKZZYBC
- Story Text: Erfurt zoo in eastern Germany is proud to present the first white rhino born to a European zoo this year.
The birth of the rhino baby in Erfurt zoo was far from easy. On January 15th its mother, "Temba", gave birth after her long sixteen months pregnancy, and was very protective of her new baby - to the extent that she followed its every step, instead on staying still and allowing it to find her teats to drink her milk.
In the end zookeepers had to feed the baby from a bottle until her mother had calmed down enough to take care of the baby properly herself. "Temba" managed this four days later, and while remaining a very protective mother, continues to take care of the baby well.
"Rhinos live off their mothers milk for a very long time - it can last one and a half or two years. And that is a long time," zookeeper Dietmar Kulka said. "The milk gets less and less and they start to eat others things with it at an early age, they start to eat their first bits of grass and straw when they are three or four months old. But the social contact with the mother stays for at least two years if not much longer."
All the baby needs now is a name - the zoo is asking for suggestions and will choose the one they find the nicest.
It is certainly one of the zoos biggest babies too, it probably weighed around 55 or even 60 kilos, Kulka said.
"The rate of increase is enormous, 1.5 kilos a day. So within a year they usually weigh around 600 kilos, and so are really stable. Once they are fully grown, at around two years old, you can reckon on them weighing two tonnes."
According to the International Rhino Foundation the Southern White Rhino was one of the first kind of rhino to be at the brink of extinction in the 20th Century, there were perhaps only 50-200 Southern White Rhino surviving.
Like other rhinos, the Southern White was a victim of hunters and poachers who sell its horn for medicinal or ornamental purposes in the Far East and Middle East.
Now Southern White Rhinos are protected and their numbers have recovered to about 11,330, they are now the most numerous kind of rhino in the world. Their numbers are greater than all the other kinds of rhino combined. However, according to the IRF poaching continues and almost all Southern White Rhinos live in a single country. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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