A rare greater one-horned rhino calf has been born at Chester Zoo. The female calf was delivered by mum Asha (15) on 14 October at 4.24pm with the birth captured by the zoo’s cameras.
Keepers say the new arrival has bonded closely with mum and already sports the same slightly wrinkled armoured plating as her parents. The species was once found roaming across the entire northern part of the Indian subcontinent but is now only present in a small area in India and Nepal.
Listed as vulnerable to extinction on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN’s) Red List of threatened species, there are only around 3,000 greater one-horned rhinos estimated to be left in the wild as they battle illegal poaching for their horns and habitat loss.
Greater one-horned rhinos are pregnant for around 15 months, so conservationists at the zoo have patiently waited for the calf’s arrival.
Sam Harley, Rhino Team Manager at Chester Zoo, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled with Asha and her new arrival. It’s been 4 years since a greater one-horned rhino calf was born here at Chester Zoo and they really are an incredible sight.”
Asha’s pregnancy was tracked by the zoo’s onsite endocrinology lab, which monitors the hormones in dung samples to check how a pregnancy is progressing.