Bosses at Knowsley Safari Park are celebrating the arrival of the newest addition to the attraction – an endangered white baby rhino who has not been given a name yet.
After 16 months of conceiving, mum Meru finally delivered the baby rhino last week.
Births of white baby rhinos birth are widely regarded as crucial to preserving and increasing the global number of the species in danger of extinction.
The newborn white rhino is Meru’s eighth calf and now joins his seven other siblings at the park.
Anyone who wants to give a name to the white baby rhino is welcome to join the competition that is about to be launched.
According to Knowsley Safari’s rhino team leader Jason Doherty, a few minutes after his birth, the baby rhino was already busy exploring his surrounding.
The park officials are also looking to seeing how the new addition to the family changes Meru’s behavior, especially with her older calf Nomvula, since the birth or a new rhino also means a mother’s separation from her previous infants.
This latest birth also helps to maintain the park’s status as one of the leading white rhino breeding groups in the whole Europe.
Knowsley Safari’s comprehensive endangered species breeding program aims to protect white rhino from extinction that is mainly due to poaching and wildlife habitat loss.
The 2016 Save Rhino figures show that there are only between 19,666 and 21,085 species left.
Since they are among the most hunted animals around the globe, newborn rhinos are very important to their conservation.
Some 12 rhino calves have been successfully added the Knowsley attraction over the last 10 years.
