For unknown reasons, rhinos<\/a> don\u2019t breed easily in captivity, but Werribee Open Range Zoo<\/a> has had more success than most when it comes to producing young. Nevertheless, there was considerable pessimism about whether Kipenzi, Jabulani\u2019s mother, would be able to contribute to the species\u2019 future.<\/p>\n Kipenzi\u2019s mother had been unable to raise her, forcing zoo staff to bottle feed her. Remarkably, keeper Debbie Jones told IFLScience that rhino milk powdered formula is available, and Kipenzi grew. However, without direct experience of maternal care, there were fears Kipenzi would not know how to treat her own calf, which intensified when she accidentally squashed her first child five days after birth.<\/p>\n Even getting Kipenzi pregnant again seemed unlikely. Werribee only has two adult males, one of whom is Kipenzi\u2019s father, and therefore not allowed to breed with her to maintain genetic diversity. The other male, Kifaru, was certainly keen, with Jones telling IFLScience, \u201cHe follows her around all the time, but she doesn\u2019t find him good boyfriend material.\u201d<\/p>\n Jabulani\u2019s aunts are much more susceptible to Kifaru\u2019s charms, but at a decade after their last births, they might be getting beyond breeding age.<\/p>\n Despite all this, Kipenzi did permit another successful mating. However, at 55 kilograms (120 pounds) at birth, Jabulani was well below the typical weight for white rhinos born in captivity, with Jones saying others at Werribee have been 60-85 kilograms (132-187 pounds) at birth. Combined with Kipenzi\u2019s anticipated lack of rearing capacity and past failure, Jabulani\u2019s prospects looked poor.<\/p>\n Jabulani with his mother at just 2 days old.<\/p>\n Image credit: Rick Hammond\/Werribee Open Range Zoo<\/p>\n \u201cJabulani was pretty small when he was born, he was just \u2018feet and ears\u2019 back then, but compared to now, he looks just like a miniature rhino at a thousand kilograms,\u201d fellow keeper Lance Weldhagen said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n Instinct took over, and Jones says Kipenzi has proven a great mum. Sixteen months after birth Jabulani is still getting some of his nutrients from her, despite now being so large she has to lie on his side for him to suckle, rather than feeding standing up as rhinos normally do.<\/p>\n For the last eight months Jabulani has combined grass with milk for maximum growth. Jones told IFLScience she\u2019s \u201csure Kipenzi would love to wean him,\u201d but can\u2019t resist when Jabulani cries when she won\u2019t let him feed. The combination of maternal care and grass has seen Jabulani reach the tonne mark faster than any of his predecessors at Werribee, despite his unpromising start, leading the zoo<\/a> to label him a \u201cmiracle calf.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJabulani\u2019s daily food consumption of 20 kilograms is the equivalent of around 100 Big Macs \u2013 but minus the fat content of a Big Mac \u2013 he\u2019s on a grass diet, so a lot healthier!\u201d Weldhagen said. \u201cSouthern white rhinos have a very wide mouth which acts like a lawnmower, he puts his head down and mows the grass and there\u2019s definitely a lot of chomping and lip-smacking that goes along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n The fact Kipenzi was able to do so well despite having been hand-raised herself is an encouraging sign for a species where increasing numbers of mothers are now being raised that way.<\/p>\n It may also be true that it takes a village to raise a calf, although with rhinos the collective noun is a crash. Jones told IFLScience the rhino family structure normally resembles that of elephants<\/a>, with a herd of females and young, and adult males getting occasional visiting rights.<\/p>\n However, at Werribee, Kifaru gets to interact with the crash far more frequently than would occur in the wild, and Jabulani loves to engage in play sparring matches with his father, as well as with his aunts, no doubt adding some muscle to that bulk. Kifaru is showing paternal skills never called on in the wild by letting his son \u2013 with a horn a third the size of his \u2013 get a few wins in. \u201cWe\u2019ve never had a multi-generational group<\/a> together before,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n What a difference 20 kilograms of food per day can make!<\/p>\n Image credit: Alex Storer\/Werribee Open Range Zoo<\/p>\n Once Jabulani stops suckling, the keepers hope Kipenzi\u2019s love of being a mother will overcome her dislike of Kifaru as a mate. If not, a swap with another zoo might find her a match more to her liking. However, Jones noted, \u201cTransporting rhinos is not easy. We don\u2019t sedate them, so it takes months to get them happy with their crates before they can be moved.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Werribee Open Range Zoo is celebrating their rhinoceros calf\u2019s crossing of the 1 tonne threshold earlier this month.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-209393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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