A baby rhino named “Kyiv” in honor of the Ukrainian defenders was born in a Czech zoo exactly a week after Russia began its invasion of the country.
Belonging to the Eastern black rhinoceros subspecies, Kyiv’s birth is another success for one of the few zoos in the world with a successful breeding program for these rare rhinos.
Kyiv is the 47th rhino of this critically endangered subspecies born in the Dvur Kralove Zoo since they received their first one back in 1971, and the first one born in about four years.
The young rhino’s mother, Eva, has been taking extremely good care of him and is very calm, even allowing some of her milk to be taken for the feeding of other youngsters, per an update from the zoo itself.
Sans horn, the little one is nevertheless growing fast—2.2 pounds per day usually.
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AP reports that Kyiv is one of four baby rhinos of this species born so far this year.
The zoo’s animals have, over the years, been transferred to other zoos to help genetic diversity of other breeding programs, and nine of their rhinos have been reintroduced into the wilds of Rwanda and Tanzania, and have since reproduced there.
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The latest update to the IUCN’s Red List found that the rhino numbers are increasing faster than they are decreasing.
Furthermore, the population remains largely intact, with animals able to reach each other easily, and there is a normal percentage of healthy mature animals among them.
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