Greater one-horned rhinos usually give birth at night or in the early morning.
Zookeepers and zoo visitors at Chester Zoo in Cheshire, England, were shocked when they witnessed this rhino giving birth in the afternoon!
15-year-old Asha gave birth to her 50kg baby on October 14, 2022, at 4:24 pm.
Zookeepers have been anxiously waiting for the calf’s arrival for about 15 months, the time greater one-horned rhinos are pregnant with their younglings. After all, these rhinos are already listed as “vulnerable to extinction” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Currently, experts estimate there are only 3,000 greater one-horned rhinos in the wild, mostly in India and Nepal.
And they’re in danger of being extinct because of illegal poaching.
“We’re absolutely thrilled with Asha and her new arrival. It’s been four years since a greater one-horned rhino calf was born here at Chester Zoo and they really are an incredible sight,” Sam Harley, rhino team manager at Chester Zoo, announced.
To boost excitement about the new rhino, the Chester Zoo bosses have decided to have a contest to help name the new Chester Zoo addition.
“RHINO BORN… AND YOU CAN HELP US NAME HER! Watching mum Asha deliver her 50kg calf is a truly special sight. Choose from the three names below by commenting with your favourite,” Chester Zoo wrote on their Facebook page.
They gave three choices to choose from. Thuli, which is a river in Nepal, Jiya, which means sunshine, or Bahula, which means star. Which one would you pick?
A lot of the page followers are choosing Jiya because it “gives new hope to the breed” and she is a “ray of sunshine.” Chester Zoo hasn’t released an official name yet so there’s probably still time to vote on their Facebook page!
On the day that Asha gave birth, they had already noticed she was lethargic and didn’t eat her food.
They suspected she was about to give birth soon but they probably didn’t expect Asha to give birth when she did. It took 14 minutes from the time Asha’s water broke to welcome this 50kg baby rhino, who will grow up to weigh around 1.17 tonnes.
“It was a true privilege to witness such a special event. Mum and calf have been so relaxed and calm, spending time side-by-side bonding together,” Sam Harley added.
Chester Zoo is the only UK zoo with an onsite endocrinology lab.
This allowed them to carefully track Asha’s pregnancy, week-by-week.
“Performing an ultrasound with an Indian rhino, and that amazingly thick skin. isn’t easy, but by collecting and monitoring weekly samples of Asha’s dung, we’re able to track the pregnancy to see how mum and calf are doing,” John O’Hanlon, a laboratory technician at Chester Zoo, explained.
The staff at Chester Zoo are happy to perform all this if it means keeping the rhinos safe.
Unfortunately, these greater one-horned rhinos are being poached for their horns to be used for particular traditional Asian medicines, which are not scientifically proven to work.
Even though their conservation work never ends, they do it if it means keeping these rare species alive.
“It’s a wonderful feeling to know that you are contributing to preventing the extinction of so many precious species,” John O’Hanlon added.
Would you like to witness a rare rhino birth? Watch the video below.
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