For now, Pottebaum describes her as a little “bowling ball” that can be seen out with her mother and playing with the other animals. Her father Robbie weighs in at around 5,000 pounds male rhinos are the second largest land mammals behind elephants. In a few years, she will be around 3,000 to 4,000 pounds, like her mother. Katana continues to grow at an astonishing pace, nearly ten pounds a day. “Our goal now is to create our own population here and to do some consortium work with other zoos in America,” Pottebaum said. “And a lot of other countries are starting to follow suit.”Īt the Gulf Breeze Zoo, keepers continue to do their part in the conservation effort by caring for the new baby and looking forward to future births and additions to the zoo. “America has shown that this can work,” Pottebaum said. While no one is considering releasing rhinos into the plains of the United States, their care and continued births in North America help to keep the global population from total decline. “We’ve actually brought back numerous species from extinction and it was because they were bred in captivity,” Pottebaum said.Īnimals such as the gray wolf, which are still considered extinct in most of the United States, were reintroduced into the wild and now have small, localized populations, a claim to what captive breeding and conservation programs can accomplish. Katana’s birth, along with breeding programs in other zoos and wildlife preserves all over the world, help fight to keep the population steady, to keep the rhinos from extinction. Pottebaum said an average of three to four rhinos are poached every day. I would say that happens in less than a decade.” ![]() It’s only a matter of time before that 20,000 is down to 500. What we can do with conservation is develop breeding programs –they are what is going to be the future for protecting a species. “Once you take away one of those niches, it will impact every species in that area. “Rhinos are a very large mammal, which means they fill a huge niche in the plains of Africa,” Pottebaum said. A higher demand for rhino horn starting in the mid 2000s has spurred another wave of poaching in the new century. Still, the rhino population has been decimated by more than 90 percent since the 1900s. The poaching of these rhinos is made even more tragic by the fact that when rhino horns are broken or cut off, they grow back within two to three years. However, some cultures believe specifically rhino horn has medicinal properties, something the scientific community has denied for many years. Rhinos are often killed by poachers for their horns, which are made of keratin, the same substance that human hair and nails are made. In March of this year, the last male Northern White Rhino died, leaving only two females left of the entire subspecies. ![]() ![]() While Southern White Rhinos are considered to be the most populous of the five rhino species, there are less than 20,000 left in the world. ![]() While being a joyous occasion for the zoo, Katana’s birth also contributes to efforts to save the rhino. So our goal is to simply replicate what the natural environment would be producing.” In the natural environment, this rhino female (Katie) would be with several other cows, having calves, rearing offspring, and they go off on their own sometimes, but they usually come together. “The more we can get a herd, the population actually seems more natural. “Our biggest focus is to create a herd,” he said. She is the first, but not the last, according to the zoo’s Director Jesse Pottebaum. But the waiting period was definitely a very long time.”īut early that morning, Leopard discovered the wait was over and little Katana stood as the first rhino to be born at Gulf Breeze Zoo. We just wanted to make sure (Katie) was healthy and doing well. It has been a long 16 months of waiting and anticipation. 20, Gulf Breeze Zoo Lead Keeper Adrianne Leopard checks on soon-to-be mother Katie, the Southern White Rhinoceros.
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