The birth of a rare
rhino calf has been captured on CCTV at Chester Zoo.
After
a pregnancy lasting 15-months, Ema Elsa,
a 13-year-old Eastern black rhino, gave birth to the male calf at 22:54 on
Saturday night.
The footage, caught
by cameras in the enclosure, shows the youngster landing safely on deep sand in
what zoo staff have described as the “perfect” birth.
Eastern black rhinos are listed by the International Union for the Conservation
of Nature (IUCN) as critically endangered in the wild, with less than 650 now
believed to remain across
Africa.
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Tim Rowlands, curator
of mammals at Chester Zoo, said:
“The footage picked up by our CCTV cameras gives us a rare glimpse of a
momentous event – a birth which provides a big boost to the European Endangered
Species Breeding Programme (EEP) for the magnificent Eastern black rhino. These
animals are on the very brink of extinction and our new arrival is hugely
important to the conservation of the species.
“Ema Elsa is an experienced
mum. She has given birth twice before at the zoo and this was another perfect
delivery. It’s important now that she and her new calf have some quiet time
together to strike up those vital early bonds.”
- Black rhino populations in Africa are being decimated due to a huge surge
in illegal poaching, driven by a global increase in demand for rhino horn to
supply the traditional Asian medicine market.
- The issue is being fuelled by the high street value of rhino horn, which is
currently changing hands for more per gram than both gold and cocaine.
Mike Jordan, collections director, added:
“Rhinos in the wild
are being slaughtered for their horns by criminal gangs that sell their horn
for huge amounts of money on the black market. If these poaching and hunting
pressures continue, rhinos could be extinct in the wild in just over ten years’
time. It’s imperative that we act now and do all
we can to try and save them.
“Chester Zoo is one of just a handful of institutions in the world that
is working with conservation organisations in Africa - including Save the Rhino
International and the International Rhino Foundation - to ensure the long-term
survival of rhinos in the wild. Areas we support, both through funding and
through the provision of our expertise, include Chyulu and Laikipia in Kenya
and Tsavo and Mkomazi in Tanzania. Alongside that, it’s important to have an
effective breeding programme in zoos to maintain a genetically viable insurance
population of the species. That’s why we’re also responsible for carefully
coordinating the breeding programme for the species in zoos across the whole of
Europe. In the future, it could be what saves them from extinction.
About Black Rhinos
- Mum, Ema Elsa, is 13-years-old. She was
born on 02/11/2002 and has now had three
calves at Chester Zoo – Bashira, Chanua and this latest arrival
- Dad, Kiwifruit, is 31-years-old (born 21/10/1984). He arrived at Chester
Zoo in 2014 from Hanover Zoo in Germany. He has now sired four calves with
this being his first at Chester Zoo. His other offspring are called Samira, Saya and Taco
- Chester Zoo has been
successful in breeding a number of critically endangered black rhinos and plays
a vital part in the international breeding programme, helping to ensure an
insurance population exists in the event that black rhino become extinct in the
wild
- The latest arrival
means that six Eastern black rhino calves have now been born at the zoo in the
last seven years
- The zoo’s director
general, Dr Mark Pilgrim, is responsible for managing the European breeding
programme for the Eastern black rhino
- Ground-breaking
science by a team at Chester Zoo team has contributed to the zoo’s successful
black rhino breeding programme. Zoo researchers have spent several years
carefully monitoring the hormone levels of their resident female rhinos in a
bid to discover the best time to introduce them to a potential partner. These
hormone levels are monitored by analysing rhino dung. Tracking hormones gives
an insight into what is going on inside the animals. It can help tell things
like whether or not an animal is a seasonal breeder, whether it has reached
puberty, whether it’s cycling on a regular basis or not and when the optimum
time to introduce a male to a female is, as well as diagnose pregnancies and
estimate when an animal will give birth
- The zoo is currently
home to 10 critically endangered Eastern black rhinos and three greater
one-horned rhinos
- Eastern
black rhinos are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for
the conservation of Nature (IUCN)
- The
growing price of rhino horn has led to a massive decline in rhino numbers,
which have decreased by up to 97% across Africa in the past 50 years. 2014 was
branded ‘the worst poaching year on record’ by leading conservationists after
over 1,200 rhinos were hunted in South Africa alone - a 9,000% increase from
2007
- Chester Zoo is one of
the main organisations fighting for the survival of Eastern black rhino and has
long supported conservation efforts in the wild to try and protect black rhinos
and continues to fund, and provide expertise, to numerous sanctuaries in Africa
- The Chester Zoo Black
Rhino Programme started in 1999, in partnership with Save the Rhino, providing
substantial financial support to Kenya Wildlife Service to enable the
translocation of 20 black rhinos to wildlife reserves in the Tsavo region of
Kenya
- Recently the zoo has
also provided support for rhinos in Chyulu Hills National Park and Laikipia
District in Kenya and Mkomazi in Tanzania
- In June 2015, the
world’s leading experts on rhinos and rhino conservation came together in
Europe for the first time when Chester Zoo hosted over 100 zoo keepers, researchers, scientists and conservationists
from the USA, Australia, Africa and Europe to debate issues surrounding the
five species of rhino – black, greater one-horned, white, Sumatran and Javan
rhino.