Last month, Zoo Miami got a new member — a baby Greater One Horned Indian Rhinoceros. The baby rhino came to this world through artificial insemination and it’s a first in recorded history.
The baby was born on April 23 at 12:30 a.m. to mom Akuti and dad Suru, after a 15-month pregnancy. Akuti and Suru couldn’t breed naturally, so they had a special team of professionals perform the artificial insemination in early 2018. The zoo staff monitored the pregnancy and the mom rhino got the best prenatal care.
The Zoo hopes this is a step in maintaining “a healthy population under human care of this highly vulnerable species,” since there are less than 3,000 Indian rhinos left in the wild.