Rare horned creature born Christmas Eve, Georgia zoo says. See the tiny calf
For the first time in the zoo’s 134-year history, an endangered, horned creature welcomed a calf on Christmas Eve, Zoo Atlanta announced.
Kiazi, a 22-year-old southern white rhinoceros, gave birth to a calf after more than a year of pregnancy, Zoo Atlanta said in a Dec. 25 Facebook post.
“The calf appears to be healthy and strong, and Kiazi is providing appropriate maternal care, according to the Animal Care and Veterinary Teams, who continue to monitor the pair closely,” the zoo said. “Kiazi, 22, has experience as a mother, having given birth to two previous living offspring at another organization prior to moving to Zoo Atlanta. Mother and calf will have an opportunity to continue to bond behind the scenes before entering the rhino habitat.”
President and CEO of Zoo Atlanta, Raymond B. King, said the birth was “long-awaited news” due to the long gestation period for rhinos.
Pregnancy for a white rhino is “among the animal kingdom’s longest,” the zoo said, lasting anywhere from 16 to 18 months.
The calves are 100 to 150 pounds at birth. It takes that long gestation to get that big, the zoo says.
Southern white rhinos, the largest of the rhino species, are listed as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and are hunted illegally for their iconic horns, the zoo said.
”Southern white rhinos are especially vulnerable because they often travel in herds in the wild, a behavior that makes it easier for poachers to locate them,” the zoo said. “Powdered rhino horn is believed by some cultures to possess medical properties, although rhino horns are made of keratin – the same substance found in human hair and fingernails – and have no known medical value.”
White rhinoceros is taken from the Afrikaans word describing its mouth: “wyd”, meaning “wide”. Early English settlers misinterpreted the “wyd” for “white,” according to the International Rhino Foundation.
The calf is the first-born of 12-year-old male white rhino Mumbles, and the second rhino ever born at the zoo.
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