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It’s a Girl!
Fantastic news from the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary (SRS) in Indonesia. A new calf was born in the predawn hours of May 12th at the 250-acre SRS within Way Kambas National Park. It’s a healthy girl! The parents are mom Ratu and dad Andalas. Ratu was born in the wild and moved to the Sanctuary when her rainforest home was destroyed.
Andalas was born at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2001. He was the first Sumatran rhino born in captivity in more than one hundred years. The struggle to help Andalas’s mother, Emi, carry a pregnancy to term and give birth is featured in the book, Emi and the Rhino Scientist. Terri Roth, the “rhino scientist” is thrilled by the news! Every Sumatran rhino counts these days. Fewer than 100 of the world’s smallest and hairiest rhinos remain on Earth. They are a critically endangered species. “The birth of any healthy Sumatran rhino calf is reason to rejoice, but the birth of a female calf when the species is so very close to extinction, makes this a monumental event,” said Terri Roth. “We applaud our Indonesian colleagues on their success and our own Andalas for siring his second calf.”
You can watch the video of Ratu giving birth on this webpage on the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) blog, as well as a video of her learning to walk! Congrats Ratu and Andalas!
by Mary Kay Carson
About Mary Kay Carson
Mary Kay Carson and Tom Uhlman are the author and illustrator of Emi and the Rhino Scientist and The Bat Scientists. Mary Kay has written many books for children and Tom has been a freelance photographer for twenty years. They live in Cincinnati, Ohio, with their dog Ruby where they wait each summer evening for the bats to begin circling above their backyard pond. Tom also shot photographs for Eruption!, a Scientists in the Field book about volcanoes by Liz Rusch. Mary Kay and Tom’s upcoming Scientists in the Field book is Park Scientists: Gila Monsters, Geysers, and Grizzly Bears in America’s Own Backyard, which is about America’s National Parks.
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