Courtney Crowder

ccrowder@dmreg.com

The rhino barn at Des Moines' Blank Park Zoo has a new inhabitant.

A baby.

The unnamed 80-pound calf, a female, was born to mom Ayana and dad Kiano, the south-side park’s rare eastern black rhinos, about 11:23 a.m. Oct. 11 on the zoo’s grounds.

The birth was met with joy at the zoo, as well as in the rhino conservation world. Ayana’s ability to carry and deliver a healthy baby, one of just seven black rhinos to be born this year in zoos worldwide, is an important highlight in the fight against the species’ decadeslong decline, experts said.

“Every baby counts,” said Lisa Smith, director of animal programs at the Great Plains Zoo in South Dakota and an eastern black rhino expert. “Considering rhinos are so endangered, whether it is a captive or wild birth, it is really important to just add to the world's rhino population.”

Eastern black rhinos are listed as critically endangered by the World Wildlife Fund, and there are fewer than 1,000 in the wild and in captive populations combined, representing a 96 percent decline from the population’s height in 1970.

Des Moines' rhinos are two of just 58 eastern black rhinos housed in North American zoos, according to the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, a leading zoological nonprofit organization. Only six of those 58 are breeding females.

“It’s so great that the baby is a female, because the black rhino population tends to be skewed toward male,” said Susie Ellis, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation, a nonprofit working to stop the world’s rhinos from becoming extinct. “Her reproductive potential is quite high and, hopefully, she will contribute greatly to the overall population.”

The birth is also a milestone for the zoo, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, said zoo spokesman Ryan Bickel. Having a baby rhino born at Blank Park is proof of the importance of the $4 million African exhibit installed in 2012 and the community’s ongoing support of the zoo’s conservation efforts.

“This is an extremely significant event,” Mark Vukovich, the zoo’s CEO, said of the birth.

Rhino baby-proofing

A few days after the delivery, the baby followed around Ayana like a shadow. As Ayana paced about the rhino barn, moving from space to space and toy to toy, the baby never let Ayana get more than a few paces ahead. Trying to keep up with her mother, the baby hops and rears, not quite steady on her feet yet.

The calf’s delivery was “textbook,” Bickel said. The zookeepers and veterinarians watched the birth on cameras installed throughout the rhino enclosure, giving Ayana some privacy and allowing nature to take its course, but staying available to step in if needed, said Patrick Nepp, one of the rhinos’ keepers.

Keepers noticed Ayana displaying some birthing behaviors Oct. 10, but her water didn’t break until about 9 a.m. Oct. 11. Ayana had about 10 minutes of active contractions before the baby crowned.

“It was extremely emotional for me, because we have been waiting for this and anticipating it basically since I started here two years ago,” Nepp said. “I shed a few happy tears when it finally happened.”

“The baby's eyes are my favorite," he continued. "They sort of pop out, and I feel like she is giving me the side-eye sometimes. But really, what's not to love? She’s the cutest.”

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The calf, likely the first endangered rhino born in the state of Iowa, was standing and walking within an hour after the birth and was attempting to feed within two hours, all signs of a healthy baby rhino, according to Chad Comer, a zoo curator.

Since the birth, Ayana has been an attentive mom and not aggressive with the keepers, as the zoo feared she might be, considering that she was a first-time mom, Comer said.

While the day-to-day routine for the keepers hasn’t changed much, there have been a few growing pains. To protect the baby, they had to remove the bigger toys that Ayana plays with, which weigh as much as the baby.

They also realized they had to baby rhino-proof the pen by adding wood panels when they figured out the baby was small enough to slip through the space between the enclosure’s bars.

“It’s like a baby gate, but for a rhino,” Nepp said.

Zoo population and the ‘tipping point’

The eastern black rhino population is at a ‘tipping point’ in the wild, experts said.

“Deaths, mostly due to poaching, will soon outnumber births,” Kevin Drees, Blank Park Zoo’s director of animal care and conservation, said in a statement. “The captive zoo population plays a role in survival of the species. ...This celebrated birth should raise awareness and bring attention to this critical wildlife situation.”

Ellis called the rhino population housed in zoos an “insurance population,” a group that can help make sure that the "critically endangered" label doesn’t turn into "extinct."

And, unfortunately, that insurance policy might come in handy sooner rather than later, Comer said. If poaching continues to rise, extinction is a real possibility.

“I have young children, and there is the possibility that they could see two species of rhinos go extinct in their lifetime," he said. "I would be happy if we could keep that to one species."

Of the five rhino species in the world, the Javan and Sumatran populations are virtually extinct, each having fewer than 100 animals total, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In 2011, a subspecies of the Javan rhino was officially declared extinct, and the northern white rhino is believed extinct in the wild and has just a few left in captivity.

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"While we have no plan to reintroduce either of these ladies into the wild, that is an option," Comer continued. "We are doing our part to supply the world with the genetics of this animal, which, ultimately, will keep this animal alive."

The baby rhino will stay at Blank Park Zoo for at least a year, if not two, while Smith and a team with the Association of Zoos & Aquariums work out where she could live with a mating partner. The team looks at age, genetics and other factors in its digital database when making those decisions.

The baby will not be viewable on exhibit for a while, according to Bickel, as the family bonds and the zoo monitors the baby’s health.

The zoo will release more information soon on how the baby’s name will be selected.

“But she’s no less cute without a name,” Comer said.