Indian Rhinoceros at Whipsnade Zoo 2008

Which rhino is this?

He/she sure is proud of themself!

By the shape of the horn it is 'Jaffna' who is the father of the two calves. This would have been shortly before he was returned to Basel.

The new younger bull 'Hugo' has a more small 'pyramid' horn. I don't think he was ever in the old enclosure either- as in this photo.

Hugo was in there for, I believe, his quarantine. He was huge and pretty friendly.

ashley-h said:

Hugo was in there for, I believe, his quarantine. He was huge and pretty friendly.

Click to expand...

My mistake. I still think this is 'jaffna' from his back-curved horn shape, though.

That I agree with, this doesn't look like Hugo, he has a bigger horn and I think he is probably taller.

Now I have a photo i took of jaffna in front of me- hornshape is identical in both photos which clinches it for me.

Do you know what lives in this enclosure since the old female Roopa died, or is it just kept spare in case its needed?

I think it might have had one of the mothers and babies in the yard but they didn't seem to have access to the main paddock. I find it odd how the 3 new rooms in the house aren't really used, due to the paddock only being spilt into 2. I think they might have been better off splitting it into 3 and allowing all 5 rhinos access to the main paddock and the new house. But that's just me

How come the two mothers and their calves can't live together in the daytime when they are outside? Maybe they haven't been able to put them back together since they had babies but they were always good companions previously. Basel have always kept their mothers and calves together in their outdoor area.

Otherwise I agree they should turn the two paddocks into three.

No, there always seems to be one mother/calf pair in the little yards.