Last week it was time for joy, and later sorrow, at the zoo. The Rhino couple had been blessed with a baby, but it died after a few hours of birth..
Giving birth to the first baby is always a special occasion to a mother. They prepare for childbirth many months before the day the baby is due – for example buying a cot, and other necessities. Not only the mother to be but her parents and others too assist in this regard. Presently, even technology assists the parents to check whether the baby conceived is a boy or girl, taking away the suspense about the sex of the baby to be.
There
are doctors who check all aspects of the child and mother to make sure
they are healthy. The first time a mother would receive lots of advice
from the elders and help as well to look after the new born baby. Anula’s pregnancy not known
But the Zoo’s only female rhino – Anula didn’t have these luxuries. Sadly, no one knew that she was pregnant even though she would have been carrying the baby for over a year as a rhino pregnancy lasts for about 16 months according to literature. It was only on September 9 morning that the keeper had detected that Anula had given birth to a baby rhino and had alerted the veterinary surgeons and zoo authorities about this rare birth.
Mother Anula would have been the most happiest. She would have shown their new born baby to the father rhino – Kosala, who is in the adjacent enclosure. As rhino mothers are careful with their babies, Anula, though inexperienced as it was her first baby, would have licked the female baby rhino. That is the best treatment it could have been given.
The mother and baby were kept separately for better care. After few hours, a zoo keeper who had gone to see the mother and baby was aghast by seeing the lifeless baby rhino in the enclosure. He immediately alerted everyone – and they had rushed to the enclosure. The veterinary surgeons reached the scene quickly but it was too late for the baby rhino.
Everybody in the zoo was sad. The director has called for an investigation. An independent veterinary surgeon from outside had been called to do the necropsy (post mortem) of the baby. It was found out that the baby was too weak and it had weighed only 16 kg whereas the normal weight of a baby rhino is 30-35 kg. The post mortem had revealed some internal bleeding in the head of the baby rhino. It is not clear how the head of the baby rhino was hurt but one theory that the zoo authorities are working on is the possibility that the internal bleeding could have been caused by a kick from the mother who could have been in a panic for some reason. Delivering a baby for the first time, she would have also felt disoriented.
Mother without morning sickness
It isn’t too hard to detect the pregnancy of a human female. The first thing that helps to detect pregnancy is morning sickness, and subsequently the size of the stomach as it gets bigger. But being gentle giants, the rhinos anyway have big bellies, so experts say that it is very difficult to identify pregnancy by just looking at a rhino. Rhinos are short-tempered, so it is also dangerous for vets to get close to the animal to conduct the required tests. If it was known that Anula was pregnant, more care could have been given. “We accept that the death of the new born rhino baby is a great loss to the zoo. An investigation is underway to find out whether there are any lapses,” said the new director of the Zoological Gardens, Anura de Silva.
Rhinos from Japan
The Dehiwala Zoo got down the pair of Black rhinos as a result of a successful animal exchange programme with Japan’s Higashiyama Zoo in Nagoya, in 2007. In exchange, Sri Lanka sent a pair of Asian elephants – namely Kosala and Anula, whose names were transferred to the Rhino couple. The Black rhino is a Critically Endangered animal in the world that is been hunted for its prized horns. In the 20th Century, the Black rhino was considered to be the most abundant in the Rhino species. But by the latter half of 20th Century, the population of Black rhinos reduced drastically. In the early 1990s the number dipped below 2,500, and in 2004 it was reported that only 2,410 Black rhinos remained in the wild. According to the International Rhino Foundation, the total African population had recovered to 4,240 by 2008. It is believed some subspecies of these Black rhinos are already extinct.
According to the web-resource ehow, female rhinoceroses come into estrus once every 21 days which means they can successfully mate during that time. Females spray urine on dung piles or bushes to alert males that they are in estrus and are ready to mate. Males may come along and spray over the female urine to ward off potential competition. Females also raise their tails in order to signal that they are ready for mating. After some fighting among the males, the female will select the most dominant male available to mate with.
After winning over the female, the rhinoceros bull will then mate with her. These mating instances can last over an hour as per observations. Males and females have little to do with each other when no mating takes place and that could be the reason why Kosala and Anula do not bother too much about each other during other times. Once the act of mating is over, the male will usually leave the female, so it is not as intimate as love making by humans.
It is said that calves are usually born within rainy seasons in Africa and Asia – it was raining in Colombo too when the baby rhino was born, so this could have triggered the rhino’s birth in the zoo. Calves are usually born around 2.5 to 4 years apart. Shortly after birth, rhinoceros calves are mobile and can keep up with the herd.
Zoo’s effort in rhino breeding
The Black rhino is the most valuable animal in the world. Any zoo in the world dreams of having a rhino, so it is an honour for the Dehiwala Zoo to have a pair of rhinos. It wasn’t easy to get them down all the way from Japan. They had got themselves wounded when they were being transported and the vets had to take care of them during the initial days. But they had settled down in Sri Lanka and developed an appetite for local food.
Anula and Kosala though shipped from Japan were not from the same zoo. As such, they were strangers. Considering their size, a fight between them for even a short period can turn fatal. Therefore, the zoo authorities had been very careful in match-making between Kosala and Anula a few years ago. After observing that Kosala and Anula were rubbing their heads, and showing other friendly gestures while being in their respective enclosures, the authorities had quietly opened the gates. Prior to that they had placed a few piles of sand in case they got into a fight so that the loser can get a little time to retreat, and also giving time for the veterinary surgeon and animal keepers to act.
To the joy of all, the match making went well. Kosala and Anula fell in love and had mated on a few occasions. But though vets were vigilant, the pregnancy could not be detected.
A new enclosure too is been built for the rhino couple and it is dearly wished that Anula and Kosala can become parents to a cute rhino baby, in the foreseeable future.
PLakbimaNews on 23.09.2012 published on LakbimaNews http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6955:joy-and-sorrow-of-a-rhino-mother&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12
