Terra Natura presents the only Indian Rhinoceros born in captivity in Spain.
The young rhino ventured out for the first time today into the park's enclosures.
The animal theme park Terra Natura Benidorm officially introduced to the public today, the young Indian Rhino calf born in the park.
The young calf who was born on the 8th of February 2012, weighs about 55 kilos. It has remained inside the shelter since birth but today it was able to explore the meadows in the complex.
The arrival of the calf was at times complicated. It took nearly two hours for the young rhino to stand on its own, which in the wild would only take about an hour. Added to this difficulty, it had problems latching on to its mother to suckle, and was therefore unable to nurse. Terra Natura experts had to bottle feed the young rhino for the first few days.
The calf was given vitamins to supplement its diet by the park staff, who took turns around the clock to feed it every two hours. Milk was extracted from the mother and placed in bottles until the experts managed to help the mother to nurse her calf naturally.
The calf is monitored continually with the help of cameras installed inside the shelter. Veterinary Surgeons weigh and examine the calf daily, to control its growth and development and at the moment the calf is putting on about a half a kilo per day. The young rhino who at birth was rather weak, is transforming daily and is full of vitality. The young animal moves freely and has now sufficient strength in its legs to be able to walk up and down slopes.
Although the rhino calf loves exploring its surroundings it doesn´t go far from it's mother who is called Shiwa. It was a difficult birth for first time mum Shiwa with a 16 hour labour. Shiwa is very attentive to all cries from her young and when the calf calls to be fed she hurries to its side.
She guides the young rhino when they are changing to another facility and at night time this large animal curls up to leave room for the young calf and to keep it warm.
Staff tempt the calf to drink from the bottle but fortunately the rhino prefers to suckle its mother. This is part of the tireless efforts to make sure that the rhino develops correctly. If the young rhino preferred the bottle it would have problems feeding and that would mean that staff would have to resort to bottle feeding again.
The young calf who has not yet been named will, as from today, go outside for a few hours to get used to his future environment. At the moment the calf will not mix with other females or with its father Niko to avoid any conflict. Adult males do not recognize their young and could attack the young rhino. As a precaution the water from the lake in the grounds has been drained as young rhino do not know how to swim and it is still far too cold for it to do so.
The experts from Terra Natura are going to use the same method of reproduction used on Shiwa on another female Indian Rhino named Nisha. The reproduction of this species is of great importance as they are in danger of extinction. Their reproduction in captivity guarantees their survival on this planet and could be used in areas where the rhino population has dwindled.
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