Beautiful baby rhino born at Chester zoo
A baby rhino has been born at Chester Zoo - and the amazing moment she appeared was captured on
CCTV.
The calf, which keepers have named Fara, is the offspring of 17-year-old Kitani and 15-year-old dad, Sammy.
She was born on January 31.
The footage shows the tender first moments as mum checks over her calf after giving birth.
Fara's dad's genes are extremely valuable as he has never before sired a calf since moving from Japan in 2002 to join the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme for the critically endangered animals.
Fara's birth is cause for great celebration at the zoo as Eastern black rhinos are extremely rare with less than 650 living in the wild.
Numbers in Africa are continuing to plummet as a result of a dramatic surge in illegal poaching, fuelled by a global increase in demand for rhino horn to supply the traditional Asian medicine market.
Poaching is pushing the species perilously close to extinction.
"Every birth is cause for great celebration but given that Eastern black rhino face a real threat of extinction our new arrival is even more significant. The calf is super important to the breeding programme in Europe and her arrival is another step towards sustaining a black rhino population which, in the wild, is being ravaged by poachers on an almost daily basis," said Tim Rowlands, curator of mammals at Chester Zoo.
"We put great effort into protecting black rhinos in the wild, supporting a number of sanctuaries across Africa. However, as the demand for rhino horn intensifies, poaching continues to become a bigger and bigger problem.
"We hope that, one day, we can put an end to this crisis once and for all. But in the meantime we need to ensure we have an insurance population and that's why this arrival – sired by a first time dad introducing new genes to the breeding programme - is such brilliant news. This means there's a very happy team of keepers, vets and conservationists here at Chester Zoo today.
"All being well, Fara will also one day play her own breeding role in a programme, which, in some cases, has already seen some black rhinos return to Africa to help boost numbers.
"For the time being though she is forging very important early bonds with mum," Mr Rowlands added.
The calf is the latest in a long-line of arrivals at Chester zoo in the last two years, following Chanua, Dakima and Embu. She brings the total number of Eastern black rhinos at the zoo to 11.
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