12-Nov-09 11:00 AM CST

Poor stork! 100-pound Rhino Born at Busch Gardens

TAMPA - It's a girl!

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay welcomed a new baby white rhinoceros Wednesday.

The newborn — who has yet to be named — weighs an estimated 100 pounds. She is the third calf born to mother Mlaleni and father Tambo.

The October 2004 birth of Mlaleni and Tambo's first calf, Malaika, marked the first white rhino birth in the adventure park's history. Their second calf, Dakari, was born in August 2006, and their third, Crash, was born in May 2008.

This latest birth brings the black and white rhino population at the adventure park to 12. There are nine white and three black rhinos.

Mlelani, Tambo and another female white rhino were airlifted from Kruger National Park in South Africa in 2001. According to the International Rhino Foundation (IRF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of rhinos, a little over 14,530 white rhinos remain in the wild, and fewer than 170 live in zoological facilities across North America.

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