A huge bundle of joy was quietly delivered to Melbourne Zoo last Sunday when a southern white rhino gave birth to a male calf.
Werribee Zoo announced that 11-year-old mother Kipenzi and 15-year-old father Kifaru gave birth to a baby weighing 60kg in the early hours of August 18.
Werribee Zoo director Dr Mark Pilgrim said the new mother was doing very well in her role.
“It's really wonderful to see her maternal instinct emerge,” Pilgrim said. “It's beautiful to see that in her.”
Kipenji's calf is just two days old and will be named by public vote. Photo: Werribee Open Range Zoo
This is Kipenji's second calf. She gave birth to her first calf in March last year, but it was difficult for her to bond with it. Kipenji, who weighed two tonnes, leaned on the calf soon after it was born, causing internal injuries and cardiac arrest, and it died within a few days.
Kipenzi and her new calf have been kept under close monitoring this week, with mother and baby kept in an isolated area with only keepers' access allowing them to get to know each other and bond.
The baby rhino will remain there for a few weeks before being introduced to the other rhinos and then released to the public.
Pilgrim said zoo staff were pleased with the progress the not-so-little family had made so far, especially with Kipenzi.
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“She's a fantastic mother and she's really protective of her baby right now,” he said. “She's doing her best to keep him close to her and not let him stray too far away. So she's just behaving perfectly, which is what we'd expect from a mother rhino.”
Pilgrim said the calf was already showing signs of being outspoken, snorting and stomping around its pen. “He's going to be a real unruly calf.”
Kipenzi himself was born in 2013 to Werribee Zoo's captive rhino, Sissi, but was hand-raised by zookeepers after Sissi would not let Kipenzi out of his sight – meaning Kipenzi was unable to get under her to drink from her milk.
Kipenji was given the name “precious one” in Swahili by Wyndham Vale residents, and his new calf will be named in a public vote in the coming weeks.
The southern white rhino is native to South Africa. The near threatened southern white rhino is bred at Werribee Zoo in Melbourne as part of the Australian Southern White Rhino Breeding Programme.
It is estimated that only 10,080 southern white rhinos remain in the wild.