Rare baby White Rhino born at Cotswold Wildlife Park & Gardens
The adorable male is the newest arrival at the Park. At one-week old, he weighed around eleven stone and is proving to be a high-spirited and boisterous youngster and has enjoyed his first mud bath and gallop around the Rhino paddock.
The calf, named Alan, is only the fourth White Rhino to be born at the Burford collection since it opened in 1970. Births in captivity are considered extremely rare, with only thirteen White Rhinos being born in European zoos in the last twelve months. More information is attached about these iconic animals.
The White Rhino is living proof of conservation success. They were once the rarest subspecies of any Rhino and were on the verge of extinction in the early 1900s when it was believed some fifty animals remained in the wild. However, poaching for their horn remains their biggest threat. The false belief that Rhino horn can cure cancer and other life-threatening diseases has resulted in a population slaughter of one thousand and fifty four Rhinos in South Africa alone in 2016. Three of the five Rhino species - the Black, Javan and Sumatran - are critically endangered.
Photo Courtesy of Jackie Thomas.
Alan - one day old!
Explore Gloucestershire
19 October 2017
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