On April 4^th, Zoo Salzburg’s Southern White Rhino, ‘Tamu’, gave birth to her first offspring. The healthy male calf arrived, without complications, and was up on his feet an hour after birth. “Our joy is huge,” says Managing Director, Sabine Grebner. “After 505 days gestation period, our 9 year old White Rhino cow, Tamu, brought a healthy Rhino boy into the world at 5:05 in the morning.”

Tamu’s little boy is now a rowdy 12-day-old, and he recently enjoyed time in the spring sunshine with his mother.

Photo Credits: Zoo Salzburg The White Rhino is the largest extant species of rhinoceros. It has a wide mouth, used for grazing, and is the most social of all rhino species. The White Rhino consists of two subspecies: the Southern White Rhinoceros (with an estimated 17,460 wild-living individuals at the end of 2007, according to the IUCN), and the much rarer Northern White Rhinoceros.

Most White Rhinos in zoos are of the southern subspecies. In 2001, it was estimated there were 777 White Rhinos in captivity, worldwide.

The fully captive Northern White Rhino Population consists of only three animals.The San Diego Zoo Safari Park, in California, has one Northern White Rhino, a female named ‘Nola’. She was born in 1974, wild caught, and is on loan to the zoo from another facility. On December 14, 2014, a 44-year-old male, named ‘Angalifu’, died of old age at the San Diego Zoo.

One hybrid female, named ‘Nabire’, currently lives at a zoo in the Czech Republic. Born in 1983, her mother was a Northern White Rhino, but her father was a Southern White Rhino.

In recent news, it was widely reported that the only known male Northern White Rhino, in existence, is being protected with 24 hour security, at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.