On Sept. 30, the Indonesian government announced the birth of a female Sumatran rhino at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary.
We don’t know how many animals are born every day on our little blue planet. But given the fecundity of insects, it’s probably in the billions — and maybe in the trillions or even quadrillions. So, it’s a rare occasion when one of these births makes global news — but then there’s nothing in the world like a Sumatran rhino , bringing the number of captive Sumatran rhinos to 10.
The offspring of mother Ratu and father Andalas, the unnamed baby is the fourth for the SRS going back more than a decade. This is also the third calf for Ratu and Andalas, making them the power couple of the SRS. Last year, Ratu and Andalas’s eldest, a male named Andatu, sired a calf with another Sumatran rhino, Rosa. With these four births, the staff of the SRS have proven they can successfully breed and rear young, even with only a few animals to work from.
Female rhino Ratu and her new calf. Ratu and male rhino Andalas have produced three of the four calves born at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry.