With the month of June, news and changes do gallop into WorldRhino. Since it needs a while to collect and rielaborate all what is happening in the world about Rhino, we’ll try to update the site as soon as we can, with huge article, full of info and trivia.

Let’s start with a huge success in matter of Conservation.

Rhino Makena and a step-forward the Nothern White Rhino recovery
A few day ago, it was announced that one of the first European ovum pick-up procedures has been succesfully done in one Southern White Rhino female. It is Makena, a 7 years old female, that still lives in her maternal big crash in Serengeti-Park Hodenhagen, Lower Saxony, Nothern Germany. She underwent medical treatment in order to be stimulate in ovulating (we do not want to be excessivelly tecnical in Veterinary term) and the Collectors team obtained the huge number of 12 ovula from her! It has been mentioned that an ideal Makena partner was meant to be transferred from England in the past months, but due to the Covid emergency, it was not possible. So, the Vet team achieved to obtained sperm from Athos, a bull that resides in Salzburg (AT) – that succesfully sired three calves, but everyone of them was conceived through Artificial Insemination – , and used it to fertilize Makena’s ovula. The procedure succeded and four embryo developed very well and can be frozen. They will be later transfer into Makena, hoping they could implant and generate a baby rhino!

Besides what many people do think about these kind of procedures, it is innegable that if this particular one will have success, it could mean that we are a step closer to the recovery of the Nothern White Rhino subspecies: with only two females left and none of them able to carry a pregnancy, there is the need to perfectionate the tecnique to transfer embryos in a surrogate mother Southern White Rhino!

 

Three gorgeous Rhino birth

With great pleasure, we see that more and more baby Rhinos are arriving from quite everywhere and there are many lady Rhino still in waiting!
At San Diego Safari Park in California, after the birth on 25 March 2020 of a male calf from Indian Rhino mum Asha (II) which has now received the name “Arjun”, another Indian Rhino calf was born just two weeks later. The new calf is a female and was born exactly on 11 April 2020 to mum Tanaya: she is still nameless. Rhino dad is again Bhopu, the residing bull.
At Salzburg Zoo, in Austria, White Rhino mum Tamu gave birth on 3 June 2020 to a healthy baby girl. She was conceived through Artificial Insemination and her dad is the already aforementioned bull Athos. Mum and daughter have started going outside, very soon they could be viewable to public.
Last, but not least, another birth of Indian Rhino happened in Patna Zoo: on 16 June a male calf was born and named “Yuvraj” from the authorities. His mum is Rani and his dad is Ayodiya. The new calf followed a half-sister, born few days earlier, and who has not received a name yet. Zoo Authority, through Official channels, said that, with the birth of Yuvraj, the Facility now counts 13 Indian Rhinos in total.