The Portland Zoo Gets Rhino-Serious Bouncing Baby, At 60 Pounds, ‘Incredibly Strong’

Congratulations! It’s a rhino!

Miadi, the Washington Park Zoo’s black rhino, gave birth to a 60-pound calf, apparently a female, at 1:37 a.m. Friday.

The calf is the first black rhino born at the zoo. There have been only 10 such births over the past four years in North America.

Nine-year-old Miadi and the father, Pete, 10, both were born in captivity.

Zoo visitors saw mother and child Friday via closed-circuit television monitors. The pair is scheduled to go on display in about 10 days if all goes well.

In the wild the black rhino population has plunged from about 65,000 to 2,400 because of poaching and habitat loss.

Luckily for Miadi, baby rhinos are born without horns. Labor, which can last 24 hours, took only about 45 minutes. The gestation period is 15 to 16 months.

“The baby looks incredibly strong, and you couldn’t ask for a better mom,” said Michael Illig, the zoo’s senior Africa keeper.

“Miadi is doing everything right and was very attentive to her new baby from the moment she saw it.”

Thirty minutes after birth, the calf was standing and could walk a short time later.

Zoo staff members think Miadi became pregnant in June 1996.

Females of breeding age are rare, and most recent births have been males.

Since Miada’s blood line is not well-represented in the captive population, using her for breeding could improve desirable genetic diversity, zoo veterinarians say.

Before the birth, keepers and veterinarians kept watch around the clock on a video monitor hooked up to four cameras in the rhinoceros barn to avoid interfering with Miadi’s labor and delivery.

Afterward, keepers - who will have the honor of naming the newborn - will continue to monitor mother and calf until they’re sure the calf is healthy and comfortable.

The zoo is one of 27 cooperating in a black rhino species survival plan, a cooperative breeding program that hopes to provide a sustainable, genetically diverse population in North American zoos.