Baby Rhino Born

Miadi, the Oregon Zoo's black rhino, gave birth to a female calf at 1:37 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 26.

Mother and child are both doing well.

This is the first rhino ever born at the zoo, and is believed to be the first black rhino born in the Pacific Northwest.

Miadi went into labor around 12:45 a.m. Thirty minutes after the birth, the calf was standing and shortly thereafter

was able to walk.

The baby looks incredibly strong and you couldn't ask for a better mom," said Michael Illig, senior Africa keeper.

"Miadi is doing everything right and was very attentive to her new baby from the moment she saw it."

The new father, Pete, is in a separate holding area and will remain there. Rhino fathers do not help in the raising of

offspring.

Miadi became pregnant in June of 1996. Ten-year-old Pete and nine-year-old Miadi were both born in zoos and

were paired up in Portland with the hope that they would produce a calf.

Female black rhinos of breeding age are rare and Miadi's line is not well-represented in the population. If the new

baby is a female, it will be a very significant birth, since the vast majority of recent births have been males.

The black rhino is a species that has not reproduced well in captivity. There have only been 10 births over the

past four years. In the wild, due to habitat loss and poaching, the black rhino population has plummeted from

65,000 to less than 2,400.

The Oregon Zoo, along with 26 other zoological institutions,cooperates in a black rhino

Species Survival Plan (SSP). The plan is a cooperative breeding program that hopes to provide a sustainable, genetically

diverse population in North American institutions.