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Denver Zoo Welcomes Baby Rhino

Denver Zoo Welcomes Baby Rhino

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Our friends over at The Denver Zoo welcomed a brand-new member to their animal kingdom. Tensing, the zoo’s 13-year-old female greater one-horned rhino, successfully gave birth to a healthy calf on Saturday morning.

The calf will remain behind closed doors at the Toyota Elephant Passage for the next six to eight weeks. This is to insure proper bonding between Tensing and the calf. It is also to keep them under the watchful eye of the zoo’s care team should anything happen to Tensing or her calf. Also who would want hundreds of photos taken right after birth?

The Denver Zoo’s Brian Aucone, senior vice president for Animal Sciences had this to say after the birth,

“The birth of this calf is the result of a truly heroic effort by our animal care, health, and science teams and partners from other zoos to support the species, It’s a significant event for several reasons, including the fact that this is the first greater one-horned rhino born at Denver Zoo, and because it was another very important step in reproductive science for animals in the wild and human care.”

According to the World Wildlife Foundation,  the greater one-horned rhino, or Indian rhino, is the largest of rhino species. They are native to Northern India and Nepal, and were once on the brink of extinction with only around 200 in the wild at the start of the 20th century.

Thanks to strict protections and management from Nepal’s and India’s wildlife authorities the population has bounced back up to 3,500+ rhinos. They are still listed as vulnerable, but things are turning around for this rhino.

OUT FRONT, of course, has a very special relationship with the rhino, as it’s been our logo and mascot since the 70s when the magazine was founded. The queer/rhino connection is a bit like the queer/unicorn connection. They resonate with us because they are strong and different and proud, and we can’t wait to help welcome this new baby rhino into the world.

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