Chester Zoo: Baby black rhino ventures outside to play for the first time

Slightly over a week ago, visitors to the Chester Zoo were astonished to witness the birth of a baby Eastern black rhino. Now at one week of age, the tiny rhino has headed outside to play for the first time. The rhino baby spent the next hour running, playing and rolling in the sand before she headed back to his mother’s side for a well-deserved nap.

The curator of mammals at the Chester Zoo, Tim Rowlands, said Malindi (the mother) had bonded well with her new baby in the very important early days of her life. Rowlands said she was an experienced mother and is once again doing a great job with her calf.

Baby black rhino is full of energy and fun

Rowlands said the new Eastern black rhino calf is full of energy and zookeepers are looking for a suitable name to match his huge personality. As reported by Sky News, the new baby rhino’s birth was a rare event, as they are normally born during the night, but this time the new calf surprised his mother Malindi and various onlookers at the Chester Zoo by arriving at 1 PM on 31 July, right in the public eye, which is a very unusual event. These days visitors can see the rhino calf playing and having fun outside.

Eastern black rhinos are critically endangered

This particular species of rhino has been placed on the critically endangered list by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

According to experts, they are likely only 650 of the rhinos existing in the wild. The growing popularity of rhino horn in Asian countries has led to a huge increase in rhino poaching, leading to a major decline in the rhino’s numbers. The Daily Post reports that numbers of the black rhinos have decreased by approximately 95 percent right across Africa since the 20th century began.

Chester Zoo is proud to be involved in conservation efforts to protect and breed black rhinos and officials at the zoo provide expertise and funding for several rhino sanctuaries in Africa.

Watch video footage of the cute baby rhino venturing outside for the first time below.

Other zoo-related news

In other zoo news, it was recently reported that a visitor at the Cairo zoo spotted a “zebra” that turned out to be a donkey painted to look like a zebra.

The man couldn’t at first believe his eyes when he saw the smudged paint on the donkey’s face. He took several photos of the animal which went viral on social media.

Officials at that zoo denied that the zebra was really a donkey, but many experts pointed out that the ears were too big for a zebra and the animal’s body size was all wrong for the species.