Australasian Rhino Population

WhistlingKite24 said:
0.1 Jamila the Southern White Rhino at Auckland Zoo is currently pregnant. Sire is Zambezi. If successful, this pregnancy would give Auckland a group of five rhinos - Zambezi (1992), Inkosi (2002), Jamila (2012), Nyah (2020) and the calf that’s on the way: Log into Facebook | Facebook
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It’s impressive to see Zambezi still siring calves at the age of 30. He and Jamila have proved a successful pair.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Inkosi is sent to Altina in the near future. It’s the obvious move given he’s the full brother of their bull who died before siring any calves and he’s the half brother of Zambezi and Jamila’s offspring, meaning he’s off little use at Auckland.

Some believe the presence of a second bull can stimulate mating, so Covid dramas aside, they may also have been waiting for this second calf to be conceived before shipping him out.
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
0.1 Amala the Indian Rhino gave birth to a healthy male calf recently at Taronga Western Plains Zoo on October 17. The male has been named Hari and is only the second ever Indian Rhino to be born in Australia. This is incredibly exciting news and there are now three (2.1) Indian Rhinos in the region: Vulnerable one-horned Rhino calf born at NSW zoo | The New Daily
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Amazing news! Hopefully this calf survives unlike his older brother! Interestingly, Amala’s sister Tashi gave birth to a female calf just one day before Hari, at Buffalo Zoo! Her other sister Jamie gave birth to her fourth calf, a male named Gronk last September at Zootampa. Amala and Hari come from a very prolific family and sure have a bunch of relatives here in the US!
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
0.1 Amala the Indian Rhino gave birth to a healthy male calf recently at Taronga Western Plains Zoo on October 17. The male has been named Hari and is only the second ever Indian Rhino to be born in Australia. This is incredibly exciting news and there are now three (2.1) Indian Rhinos in the region: Vulnerable one-horned Rhino calf born at NSW zoo | The New Daily
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Fantastic news! Here’s hoping TWPZ will be the first zoo in Australia to successfully rear an Indian rhinoceros calf to adulthood.

Amala is only 15 years old, so potentially has another two decades of reproduction in her. Given that her body is back in sync with reproduction and that the staff will be able to put in place any lessons they’ve learnt from two successful pregnancies, it’s possible a succession of calves could now follow like they have for Whispande and other zoos across the world.
 
0.1 Eshe the White Rhino calf at Monarto Safari Park died on Friday evening. The autopsy revealed trauma with a broken rib and considerable internal bleeding, continuing Monarto's unfortunate string of rhino calf deaths. This leaves the park with five (2.3) white rhinos and the greater Australasian population at approximately 48 (22.26) individuals with one confirmed pregnancy.
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
0.1 Eshe the White Rhino calf at Monarto Safari Park died on Friday evening. The autopsy revealed trauma with a broken rib and considerable internal bleeding, continuing Monarto's unfortunate string of rhino calf deaths. This leaves the park with five (2.3) white rhinos and the greater Australasian population at approximately 48 (22.26) individuals with one confirmed pregnancy.
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This is devastating news.

There’s a bit of pattern here. The last three calf deaths were:

2018 - Tundu died at 18 months
2019 - Imani died at 11 months
2021 - Eshe died at 15 months

All were born to Umqali and two died of trauma (internal bleeding); while the other died of blood clotting issues (blood clotting is important in preventing blood loss following trauma).

Considering the deaths are also occcuring around the end of the weaning period (12-18 months for this species), I’d be looking at whether the mother was becoming frustrated by their attempts to suckle.
 
@Zoofan15 That's unfortunate (appreciate your knowledge sharing though), and almost impossible to intervene with as its a mother with her suckling calves so very tough situation to try prevent
 
steveroberts said:
@Zoofan15 That's unfortunate (appreciate your knowledge sharing though), and almost impossible to intervene with as its a mother with her suckling calves so very tough situation to try prevent
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If this is the cause (and to be clear I’m only speculating based on the facts we have), there are a couple of things the zoo could do. Supplementary feeding would lessen the desire of the calf to suckle from the mother; though since the point is to wean the calf onto solids, I’d trial separating the calf for a short period to speed up the transition - especially once at the age where it really should no longer be dependent on the mother’s milk (i.e. 15 months onwards).

It’s important in any situation like this (and I’m certainly not saying this is what’s happening at Monarto) to ensure the other rhinos (including the mother) aren’t taking the calf’s intended food, as this would also lead to an increased dependency on the mother’s milk - especially if suckling presents as the easier option. Most zoos negate this problem by distributing the food in piles across the exhibit/scatter feeding.
 
This is dreadful news :( So sad about Eshe, only saw her a few months ago. Really makes me feel for Monarto's Rhino program who will probably be subjected to the "Monarto has now killed three calves in a row" scrutiny from the media. Makes me wonder if instead of trying again and mitigating her behavior, Monarto may now just retire Umqali to avoid the larger scrutiny if it occurs again.

Monarto has unfortunately not had the most successful breeding program in regards to producing animals that go on to reproduce themselves. Out of the 7 calves born at Monarto, all 4 of Umqalis have now passed and one of Uhuras has passed. Take note though that Umqali has previously raised two calves successfully to adulthood, Kei (2006) at TWPZ (now at Mogo) and Digger (2011) at Monarto, who passed I believe under a year after transferring to TWPZ. Death dates are below for each cow's calves.
Umqali
2014/15? - Digger
2018 - Tundu
2019 - Imani
2021 - Eshe
Uhura
2008 - Watoto (Alfie)

Only Uhura's two other calves with bull Satara, Jabari (2007) now at Singapore Zoo and Kibibi (2012) now at Australia Zoo remain alive. and unfortunately, neither of them (To my knowledge?) have yet successfully sired a calf. This makes me believe with Umqali it's either a management issue at Monarto or maybe Umquali has recently developed this aggressive behaviour towards her calves, as we know she has been already been able to successfully raise two calves to adulthood.
 
Swanson02 said:
This is dreadful news :( So sad about Eshe, only saw her a few months ago. Really makes me feel for Monarto's Rhino program who will probably be subjected to the "Monarto has now killed three calves in a row" scrutiny from the media. Makes me wonder if instead of trying again and mitigating her behavior, Monarto may now just retire Umqali to avoid the larger scrutiny if it occurs again.

Monarto has unfortunately not had the most successful breeding program in regards to producing animals that go on to reproduce themselves. Out of the 7 calves born at Monarto, all 4 of Umqalis have now passed and one of Uhuras has passed. Take note though that Umqali has previously raised two calves successfully to adulthood, Kei (2006) at TWPZ (now at Mogo) and Digger (2011) at Monarto, who passed I believe under a year after transferring to TWPZ. Death dates are below for each cow's calves.
Umqali
2014/15? - Digger
2018 - Tundu
2019 - Imani
2021 - Eshe
Uhura
2008 - Watoto (Alfie)

Only Uhura's two other calves with bull Satara, Jabari (2007) now at Singapore Zoo and Kibibi (2012) now at Australia Zoo remain alive. and unfortunately, neither of them (To my knowledge?) have yet successfully sired a calf. This makes me believe with Umqali it's either a management issue at Monarto or maybe Umquali has recently developed this aggressive behaviour towards her calves, as we know she has been already been able to successfully raise two calves to adulthood.
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Monarto have indeed had a run of bad luck. Assuming there’s no video footage of the incident that caused her death, the logical way to investigate it is to identify common factors in the three deaths. The calves all being around the age of weaning is a common factor; but there’s other things to consider: Which bull was present (if any)? What was the mother’s pregnancy status? Was there any tension in the group prior to the incident?

From what I can tell, Jabari has sired no calves at Singapore Zoo. Since 2002, 19 calves have been there to four females and all were sired by a bull named Hoepel.

Kibibi is a female and is yet to conceive her first calf. Her herd contains two reproductively active cows, so she may be suffering from estrus suppression.
 
@Zoofan15 Honestly you majorly deserve a big salary offer from ZAA for your knowledge and optimum welfare-approach strategizing and know I'm not alone amongst our friends on here in believing that, its really refreshing reading your insight because your research is always so thoroughly insightful
 
steveroberts said:
@Zoofan15 Honestly you majorly deserve a big salary offer from ZAA for your knowledge and optimum welfare-approach strategizing and know I'm not alone amongst our friends on here in believing that, its really refreshing reading your insight because your research is always so thoroughly insightful
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Thank you so much, @steveroberts. This has honestly made my day. :) I greatly enjoy researching animal behaviour and husbandry and writing about them. It’s a privilege to be able to share what I know with people on here and in turn, learn from them. :cool:
 
An article on the deaths:

Monarto Zoo investigates death of baby rhino, the third since 2017

All three are females and all three seem to have died of similar sorts of causes, maybe brought on by a blow to the side, a broken rib and the subsequent bleed," Monarto director Peter Clark said.

Mr Clark said investigations would consider "all sorts of things" including whether there were genetic factors involved.

Foul play is not suspected, but vets are keeping an open mind.
 
As posted on the news thread, Sydney Zoo is now a holder of Southern White Rhino creating 13 facilities housing this species in Australasia. No concrete information yet about the individual/s in question but @Matt_C did mention that a rhino was being crate trained at Hamilton to head to Sydney which was uncovered during one of their visits last year.
 
What happened to the rhino at the Cairns Safari park - did it/they remain in Australia or get exported to Bali with many of the animals?
 
Zoofan15 said:
We have so many rhinos, nobody on here has even mentioned it’s absence (or return to stock) until today. The hippos however…
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The difference is many rhino’s have been imported in resent year’s however hippos have not been imported for many years thats why letting the ones kept at Mareeba be exported was a major blow to the zoos here keeping them,a bad mistake by someone in zoo management
 
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