France: Critically endangered black rhino gives birth to male calf, watch video

Wildlife authorities said that a critically endangered black rhino gave birth to a male calf in a French zoo. According to reports, the rhino is a male and was born on December 6 at the Bassin d'Arcachon Zoo in southwestern La Teste-de-Buch. The calf's mother was given to Bassin d'Arcachon as part of a breeding programme from Europe. According to reports, Nabila mated with a rhino named Dazanty to give birth to the first black rhino in the French Zoo.

According to the International Union for the conservation of Nature (IUCN) the black rhino is formally known as the Diceros bicornis and comes under the critically endangered category. The French zoo stated that the birth of the black rhino was a second such incident in Europe in 2019.

World Rhino Day

Septemeber 22 marks the World Rhino day, as announced by the World Wildlife Fund-South Africa in 2010. This was created as an attempt to generate awareness about the endangered animal, with all its 5 species, black, white, greater one-horned, Sumatran and Javan. The aim was to ignite consciousness as to the horrors on poaching on a global scale.

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According to World Wildlife (WWF) figures, despite conservation efforts, "Africa is losing an average of three rhinos a day to the ongoing poaching crisis." According to a report by WWF, two species of rhino in Asia, Javan, and Sumatran are critically endangered. However, successful conservation efforts have helped the third Asian species, the greater one-horned (or Indian) rhino, to increase in number. Their status was changed from Endangered to Vulnerable, but the species is still poached for its horn.

Read: San Diego Zoo Announces Birth Of White Rhino

The report also revealed that in Africa, the western black rhino and northern white rhinos have recently gone extinct in the wild. The only three remaining northern white rhino is kept under 24-hour guard in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Black rhinos have doubled in number over the past two decades from their low point of fewer than 2,500 individuals, but total numbers are still a fraction of the estimated 100,000 that existed in the early part of the 20th century.

Read: Dog, Abandoned Giraffe Become Best Friends At Rhino Orphanage In South Africa

Read: Sumatran Rhino Is Extinct In Malaysia As Lone Survivor Dies Due To Cancer

(With inputs from agencies)