Zoo Atlanta Welcomes New Female Eastern Black Rhinoceros
4-22-10
Arrival could ignite romance for critically endangered pair
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ATLANTA – April 22, 2010 – Andazi, a 3-year-old female eastern black rhinoceros from Miami Metrozoo, arrived at Zoo Atlanta on Wednesday, April 21, 2010. The rhino journeyed via trailer to her new quarters at the Zoo, where she will complete a routine 30-day quarantine period before making her debut.
The youthful 3 year old Andazi is expected to meet Members and guests late next month, and she has been recommended by the Rhinoceros Species Survival Plan (SSP) as a potential mate for 23-year-old male Boma. Born in 1986 at the Zoo Dvur Kralove in the Czech Republic, Boma has sired no offspring in his more than 20 years at Zoo Atlanta. (Boma’s longtime companion, 19-year-old female Rosie, was sent to the Columbus Zoo in November 2009, also per recommendation of the Rhino SSP.)
Now found only in zoological facilities and on wildlife preserves in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia and South Africa, black rhinos are among Earth’s rarest mammals. Hunted for their horns, which are harvested primarily for use in traditional eastern medicine, rhino populations have declined catastrophically as a result of poaching and habitat fragmentation. Of more than 100 rhino species once known to exist, only five – the black rhino and its relative the white rhino, Indian rhino, Javan rhino and Sumatran rhino – remain today, and all are critically endangered. Stay tuned for updates on Andazi’s debut to the African Plains.
