\n Folly Farm has announced the birth of a critically endangered eastern black rhino calf, the second to be born in Wales as part of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) breeding programme.\n<\/p>\n
\n The male calf was born on Thursday, November 27, after a 15-month pregnancy, and is one of an estimated 39 of his kind to be born in the UK in the past 25 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jack Gradidge, conservation officer at Folly Farm, said: “It\u2019s always heart-warming to welcome new arrivals as part of the European Breeding Programme through our membership with EAZA \u2013 but it\u2019s even more special when it\u2019s such a significant animal and one whose wild cousins are under threat.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Dakima was a great mum with Glyn so it\u2019s wonderful to see these instincts are still just as strong the second time around.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This is such a monumental event for all the staff here and the zoo team have worked incredibly hard to create an environment where the rhinos felt comfortable enough to mate.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Not only is this calf helping to increase numbers of a critically endangered species, he\u2019s also the second rhino ever to be born in Wales \u2013 with his brother being the first.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The calf\u2019s mother, 12-year-old Dakima, was paired with 14-year-old Nkosi as part of the European Endangered Breeding Programme (EEP).\n<\/p>\n
\n Dakima previously made history in 2020 with the birth of her first calf, Glynd\u0175r, the first rhino calf born in Wales.\n<\/p>\n
\n The new rhino calf was born on November 27 to mum Dakima (Image: Folly Farm)\n<\/p>\n
\n Eastern black rhinos remain critically endangered due to poaching and habitat loss.\n<\/p>\n
\n Simon Jones, CEO of the UK-based conservation organisation Helping Rhinos, said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome news of this beautiful eastern black rhino calf at Folly Farm.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We are grateful for their support of Helping Rhinos\u2019 efforts, including the care of young calves orphaned by poaching.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Folly Farm is part of a wider conservation effort across Europe aimed at increasing the captive population of the eastern black rhino, with the long-term goal of supporting wild populations.\n<\/p>\n
\n The breeding programme is supported by a purpose-built rhino facility, the Kifaru Reserve, which welcomed rhinos to the park 10 years ago almost to the day.\n<\/p>\n
\n The reserve also educates visitors on the role of modern zoos in conservation efforts.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Gradidge said the immediate focus is on giving mother and calf space to bond and monitoring their early development.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “For us, the next steps are just to keep an eye on Dakima and make sure the calf stays healthy and gets everything he needs from mum.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s exciting to be playing our part in helping to safeguard these amazing animals for future generations.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Folly Farm has announced the birth of a critically endangered eastern black rhino calf, the second to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-298633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}