After news that the long-awaited white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) calf had been born on the Tshukudu Private Game Reserve, no one could have held the reserve staff back in venturing out to catch a glimpse of the little guy…..
So off we went to capture a sighting and some photos, which didn’t prove as easy as originally thought as mummy rhino decided to shield her calf from the world at first! After a couple of days searching, we found the baby white rhino, now named Mandla, stood nervously but intrigued, in the large shadow of his mother.
You never really think of a rhino as cute, however seeing Mandla standing there, a little wobbly and a little vulnerable, with his tiny flickering ears and hornless head, you cannot help smiling from ear-to-ear and letting out an “awww”. I would say that he is the epitome of cute!
Mandla was long-awaited due to the gestation period of the white rhino being 16 months long, but well worth the wait! Rhino calves will stand after only 10 minutes following the birth and a few hours after birth will start to suckle from the mother. The calf will suckle for the next 18 months, moving onto a “tasty” diet of grass and will stay with the mother for roughly 3 years until the mother has another offspring.
The species of rhino in South Africa consists of the white and black rhino. One way to differentiate between the species is through the white rhino calf running in front of the mother and the black rhino calf running behind. The interesting fact about the white rhino is in reference to its name – as you can see from the image – they aren’t white! The name comes from the Afrikaner word for “wide”, which refers to their wide mouth – also known as square-lipped.
White rhinos are also the largest of the rhino species and are classed as one of the world’s biggest land animals – second to the African or Asian elephant in size! So although teeny now….Mandla will weigh about 30 times heavier than his current weight, when he is full grown!
The decline in rhinos is devastating and one of the greatest wildlife tragedies of our time! Rhinos have suffered from habitat loss and poaching for horn trading in Asia and the Middle East. Baby rhinos need protection from their mothers, however many are being orphaned due to poaching, so not only are the adult rhino population being endangered but the opportunity to raise the population through new borns is also at high risk!
To date 294 rhinos have been poached in Africa since January 2014! This is a shocking statistic and if you compare this to the number of people being arrested for poaching – at only just over 20, more needs to be done to protect the rhino species!
Action is therefore needed to protect rhinos, to educate the Asian population on the drastic effects of poaching and to increase support for conservation efforts. There is an extreme threat of extinction for the rhino and although the southern white rhino has a higher population, the northern white rhino was declared extinct in the wild in 2008 and there are only four rhinos remaining in captivity in Garamba National Park! We do not want the northern white rhino to be completely extinct and we also do not want to see this happen to the southern white rhino either!
Let’s spread the word – informing people of the stats, asking people to donate http://www.savetherhino.org/ and exploiting poachers and poaching!
More needs to be done…..do you want to see Mandla lose his mother before he is ready to fend for himself or to grow up to be inhumanely killed for his horn?
Click the link for the BBC’s feature on white rhinos Worst year ever for SA rhino poaching Rhino Poaching
Recent news – Thieves Steal rhino horns in South Africa Thieves steal rhino horns
Carnivores and Conservation 