Rare white rhino born in Chilean zoo

sAntiago, Chile — Hannah, a 13-year-old white rhinoceros, gave birth to a newborn calf in a rare zoo birth for the near-endangered species.

The arrival of the male calf, named Silverio, two weeks ago marked the third time a white rhino was born in South America. Buin Zoo in the Chilean capital Santiago revealed Silverio to the public on Tuesday as he gave his first giant steps after 12 days of medical care in confinement.

The zoo hailed his birth as a “great achievement” for conservationists around the world. Last year, only eight other southern white rhinos were born.

The director of Buin Zoo explained that a recent series of failed rhino novels had dashed the hopes of conservationists trying to breed the species across the continent. But Hannah and Oliver – a pair of southern white rhinos sent to Santiago from sub-Saharan Africa just over a decade ago – hit it off, producing three offspring at this zoo.

“There are several zoos in Latin America that have a couple of rhinos and have not been able to reproduce,” said zoo director Ignacio Idalsoaga. “We are contributing a ninth offspring to a species of which there are only a few left in the wild.”

A team of veterinarians closely monitoring Silverio declared him healthy on Tuesday.

The success story comes as fewer and fewer white rhinos roam the African plains. Northern white rhinos have effectively become extinct, although the international scientific community has began to revive the species through assisted reproduction and stem cell research.

Southern white rhinos, the northern’s close cousin and a more common species, have been classified as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world’s leading scientific authority on species status. There are just over 10,000 southern white rhinos left in the world, the vast majority of them in zoos.

This is still a vast improvement from the turn of the 19th century, when the species was hunted almost into oblivion. Intensive conservation efforts in recent decades have moved southern white rhinos back from the brink of extinction, a rare example of robust recovery in the face of danger.

But that could change, conservationists say, as poachers continue to kill rhinos for their horns and the mammals may struggle to breed in captivity, with a gestation period of 18 months and often more than one needed. male to stimulate reproduction.

Humans are the only predators of rhinos, reports the international conservation union, with poachers killing around 1,000 rhinos a year. It says that around 17 rhinos are born each year.