A King is born: Adorable moment baby rhino with royal name greets the world for the first time
- Three-week-old King, an eastern black rhino, weighed 60lb at birth
- He is one of just 5,000 in the world and the first born in zoo for 24 years
- Doctors struggled to hold back tears at his public debut on Tuesday
By MIA DE GRAAF
This is the moment that pushed professional doctors to the brink of tears.
Finally, the King is born.
Emerging from his stony tower into the golden sunlight, this minuscule baby rhino timidly trotted to greet the world for the first time.
Three-week-old King is the first eastern black rhino born in Lincoln Park Zoo for 24 years - putting an end to fears that the endangered species may be nearing extinction.
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Cute: King made his public debut on Tuesday. He is the first born to eight-year-old Kapuki, and father Maku, 27
Hornless and frail - weighing just 60lb at birth - King was completely unaware of the euphoria and excitement he had caused, cowering behind his mother, Kapuki.
'I tried not to cry because it was so exciting,' Dr. Rachel Santymire, who helped bring about the conception, told DNAinfo Chicago.
She added: 'The poaching pressure the species is facing is just enormous ... So, to bring another one into the world is just amazing — and he’s just so cute.'
One of just 5,000 eastern blacks in the world, King has been five years in the planning.
Hello world: Eastern black rhino King was just 60lb when he was born on August 26 at Lincoln Park Zoo
Endangered: Eastern black rhinos are prime targets for poachers. There are just 5,000 of them in the world
The male and female rhinos live in separate compounds, and zookeepers have to meticulously plan ways to bring them together to mate.
They had to judge when each was ready by their own personal signals.
Kabuki would excrete. King's father, Maku, would become violently aggressive.
The zoo had to wait over a year for the highly-anticipated birth as rhino pregnancies last for 16 months.
Finally, on August 26, King arrived, and on Tuesday he made his public debut.
Named after King Harris, a longtime Lincoln Park Zoo supporter and member of the Board of Trustees, the baby has a lot to live up to.
But the zookeepers said he will have no trouble with that - within minutes of his first public appearance he was adventurously roaming around the yard, sniffing out new scents.
HORN-LIPPED RHINO: ALMOST WIPED OUT BY GREEDY EUROPEAN SETTLERS
Critical: WWF have issued severe warnings worldwide to protect the unique species since European settlers went on a poaching spree
The black rhinoceros - or hook-lipped rhino - hails from Cameroon, Kenya and South Africa.
Critically endangered, they have a distinctive curved upper lip that poachers target.
Their road to obliteration started when European settlers caught sight of their distinctive feature and rushed to bring them back home.
By the 1960s they had disappeared from most countries, including Angola, Botswana, Chad, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, Sudan, and Zambia - with just 70,000 still alive.
Nonetheless, a poaching epidemic started in 1970. Almost every one living outside zoos and national parks was killed for trade.
Within 10 years, their population had decreased by 90 per cent.
Experts declared there to be just 2,475 alive in 1993, but a population surge in South Africa and Namibia balanced the figures years later. There were just 4,880 of them in February this year.
They typically have two horns - the longest is usually 50cm-long - and live to around 50 years old.
Black rhinos are solitary characters, although males often form groups of 12 where possible. Mothers and daughters stay together for years.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2424257/King-baby-rhino-born-Lincoln-Park-Zoo.html#ixzz2fkd018rL
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