17-Dec-09 6:43 AM CST

Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary News

Hello [firstname],

This month has brought us some exciting news from the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia! On December 5th, Andalas (the center’s young male, who was born at the Cincinnati Zoo and later transferred to Indonesia) successfully bred with Ratu, one of the sanctuary’s young female rhinos, for the first time.

There have been just three Sumatran rhinos born in captivity during the past century, all at the Cincinnati Zoo. Andalas was the first, followed by his sister, Suci, who still lives in Cincinnati, and brother Harapan, who now resides at the White Oak Conservation Center in Florida. With the unfortunate death of Emi (mother to all three youngsters) earlier this year, the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary is now home to the only potential breeding pairs of Sumatran rhinos in captivity anywhere in the world. Although behaviorally normal, Torgamba, the SRS’s older male, is suspected to be infertile, leaving Andalas as our best hope for breeding this Critically Endangered species in captivity.

Over the past year, Andalas’s vets and keepers have been working to introduce him to the females at the sanctuary – Ratu, Rosa and Bina. During these initial introductions, Andalas semed very unsure of how to behave, and when in doubt, tended to be aggressive. But after numerous socialization sessions, in which the male and female rhino are fed together on opposite sides of a gate and then gradually allowed to interact at their own pace, Andalas – with some guidance from Ratu, an older and more experienced rhino – learned what to do. As you can see from these photos of the twosome, typical rhino courtship behavior includes chasing, nudging, and sharing a relaxing wallow in the mud.