Christmas present for Ugandans: A Rhino Baby

Some good news came from the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary in Uganda where over the Christmas holidays another rhino baby was born. The mother, Malaika, gave birth to a rhino boy, the fourth birth in 2016.

The overall number of rhinos now stands at 19, affirming once again that the breeding programme of the sanctuary is working extremely well with the fastest rate of reproduction known among other rhino conservancies.

Initially stocked with just four adult rhinos, two male and two female brought in from Kenya’s Solio Rhino Sanctuary, was the number boosted when Disney’s Animal Kingdom donated another breeding pair. 

Since then has the number of rhinos steadily gone up and the first of the second generation are now nearing maturity, no doubt boosting numbers even further in the future.

Sadly though is the one female the Rhino Fund brought into the country in late 2001 and which is kept at the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre in Entebbe, going to reproductive waste as the organization preferred to engage in turf wars with RFU and denied the donors who paid for the two rhinos kept there, Sherino by the Sheraton Kampala Hotel and Kabira by Mr. and Mrs. Sudhir Ruparelia, the chance to see their donation ‘bear fruits’. All proposals to have Sherino brought to Ziwa to induce some breeding mood have failed and those responsible should hang their heads in shame for their negativity and obstinate refusal to see rhinos born of this female too.