White rhino gives birth to calf at Toronto Zoo after 11 years in the facility

A white rhino calf was born at the Toronto Zoo this week.

Zoo officials say a rhino named Sabi gave birth to a healthy calf just before 8 a.m. on Thursday.

This is the 14-year-old rhino’s first calf.

The zoo says Sabi arrived there in 2012 and her long reproductive cycles made conception a challenge.

The zoo staff made adjustments to Sabi’s daily care and diet, and her behaviour suggested that her hormonal cycles had switched to the typical length of 30 days in the spring of last year.

Officials say the breeding introduction of Sabi with white rhino male Tom in the summer of 2022 was successful.

White rhinos in the wild are listed as “near threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

There are fewer than 16,000 left in the wild, with numbers declining due to habitat loss and the continued increase in poaching for their horns in the illegal wildlife trade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2023.

1:38 Proof is in the poop: Researches monitor stress of deer through their feces