We’re celebrating World Rhino Day with BIG NEWS

We have BIG NEWS for World Rhino Day. Join us in welcoming our newest Team Rhino recruit — a new Sumatran rhino calf!

Pictured here is Ratu’s fetus is at 117 days old. In this stage of development, the fetus is much larger than an embryo. In the lower right corner of the image, you can clearly see the calf’s head. This is a profile view, and the circular dark spot is the fetus’ eye. To the left of the eye, you can see its nose and mouth. The new calf will be the second rhino born at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia’s Way Kambas National Park. Courtesy of Yayasan Badak Indonesia.
Pictured here is Ratu’s fetus is at 117 days old. In this stage of development, the fetus is much larger than an embryo. In the lower right corner of the image, you can clearly see the calf’s head. This is a profile view, and the circular dark spot is the fetus’ eye. To the left of the eye, you can see its nose and mouth. The new calf will be the second rhino born at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia’s Way Kambas National Park. Courtesy of Yayasan Badak Indonesia.

Ratu — a rhino living at Indonesia’s Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary — is pregnant with her second calf! Our new recruit is a game changer — offering hope for the survival of critically endangered Sumatran rhinos.

Ratu’s calf is due in May 2016, and will join the sanctuary’s five other rhinos — including Ratu’s first offspring, Andatu. In 2012, Ratu made history when she gave birth to Andatu, who was the first Sumatran rhino born in an Asian breeding facility in more than 140 years.

Pictured here is baby Sumatran rhino, Andatu, romping around in Indonesia’s Way Kambas National Park in 2012. Sumatran rhino calves weigh between 50 and 60 pounds at birth. Andatu will become a big brother in May, when Ratu’s second child joins the Sumatran rhino family at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary. Courtesy of Yayasan Badak Indonesia.
Pictured here is Sumatran rhino, Andatu, romping around in Indonesia’s Way Kambas National Park in 2012. Sumatran rhino calves weigh between 50 and 60 pounds at birth. Andatu will become a big brother in May, when Ratu’s second calf joins the Sumatran rhino family at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary. Courtesy of Yayasan Badak Indonesia.

Want an idea of what the new calf will look like? Check out ultrasound video and photos — as well as photos of Andatu when he was just a days old. We expect this new offspring to be just as cute!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uljN6JW_49E?rel=0&controls=0]

Today’s announcement gives special significance to World Rhino Day, which is intended to increase awareness and support for the five remaining species of rhinos. Increasingly, all rhino species are facing serious threats from poaching to habitat loss and conservation experts are working against the clock to save them.

We understand that not everyone who cares about rhinos is in a position to donate thousands of dollars a year to conservation or lobby bigwigs within national governments’ environmental agencies or lend their prominent name to awareness campaigns by going on safari with media or exchange fire with ruthless poachers in the African bush.

Team Rhino Profile PicThat’s why the we formed Team Rhino — a massive effort to globalize support for saving the rhino from the grassroots up.

We’re forming a global roster and making local plays. From a rookie-level retweet to a major league donation, we’re recruiting members of Team Rhino to do whatever they can to stomp the competition from poachers and help rhinos win their fight for survival.

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Part of the strength of a team is its members’ ability to motivate each other. We’ve teamed up with Dave Matthews and American Authors — as well as MVPs like Dr. Jane Goodall and Jack Hanna — to call on fans around the world to learn more about the rhino’s fight and share with others.

Dave Matthews joined Team Rhino to help defeat poachers. Whose side are YOU on? “In some parts of Asia, the misguided belief that rhino horns contain magical curative qualities has resulted in the slaughter of about a thousand rhino a year. The truth is rhino horns are made of the same stuff as fingernails. If the slaughter isn't stopped, the African rhino will disappear in a matter of decades or less. Please join the International Rhino Foundation's effort to save these majestic animals.” — Dave Matthews
Dave Matthews joined Team Rhino to help defeat poachers. Whose side are YOU on?
“In some parts of Asia, the misguided belief that rhino horns contain magical curative qualities has resulted in the slaughter of about a thousand rhino a year. The truth is rhino horns are made of the same stuff as fingernails. If the slaughter isn’t stopped, the African rhino will disappear in a matter of decades or less. Please join the International Rhino Foundation’s effort to save these majestic animals.”
— Dave Matthews

Many people don’t know that rhinos are poached for their horn, which is sold on a black market controlled by international crime syndicates that support terrorism, high-stakes drugs and arms trade, and other human rights violations. They’re unaware that rhino horn is consumed primarily in China and Vietnam and used in traditional medicine or as a status symbol even though it is made of the same substance as our hair and fingernails. Many don’t know rhinos may become extinct in our lifetime if poaching numbers follow their current trend.

Like poachers and wildlife criminals, we must cross international and organizational boundaries to defeat them. Team Rhino is a global rallying cry to champion rhinos — a call to rush the field to declare victory for rhinos.

Help this species fight for its survival — and win. Join Team Rhino.

5 thoughts on “We’re celebrating World Rhino Day with BIG NEWS”

  1. What INCREDIBLY wonderful news…..GOOD NEWS….we all need it EVERY DAY!!!!!! TAKE NOTE MEDIA and NEWS CHANNELS ….. GIVE US GOOD NEWS every day after all the BAD. There is SO MUCH beauty on this planet so SOMEBODY PLEASE…..ADD THE GOOD NEWS!!!!!

  2. Reblogged this on Holiztic Vet and commented:
    This is a wonderful news on a World Rhino Day! Ratu and Andalas, the rhino couple at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, my previous work place, are expecting their second baby! Yay! Congrats Ratu and Andalas for the baby, and congrats Andatu for the little brother 🙂

  3. Fantastic news!
    Congratulations to all in the SRS, Yabi and IRF people!!

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