The Toronto Zoo got a special Christmas gift this year, when they welcomed the newest addition of their white rhino family.
The 62.3 kg calf was born at 10:45 p.m. on Christmas Eve, to seven-year-old mother Zohari and father Tom, a 10-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 Toronto 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.
With only between 19,682 and 21,077 white rhinoceros left in the wild, the species is currently listed as near threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
This makes the recent birth at the Toronto Zoo all the more important for white rhinoceros conservation, the zoo said.
The zoo is part of the White Rhinoceros Species Survival Plan, with the goal of establishing and maintaining healthy and genetically diverse populations.
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