Safari West near Santa Rosa welcomes baby white rhinoceros

Eesha, the 18-year-old Southern white rhino who has lived at Safari West preserve for 14 years, displayed unusual enough behavior early on Sunday to put her keepers on alert that the time for her to deliver might be close.

Then late in the day, things happened with lightning speed.

Suddenly feet appeared, and after four pushes and a few minutes, the little baby was in the world and soon on its feet — if somewhat unsteadily and mystified looking.

Safari West is keeping the gender a secret because of a gender reveal event planned for later.

“This is the best day of my life,” said one of Eesha’s handlers, Lori McNeal, who had come to work at Safari West from a zoo out of state because of her love of rhinoceroses.

Wrinkly, dark and damp at first, the new calf has only a small bump where a horn will sprout one day and, at about 150 pounds, it is dwarfed by its mother’s sizable head. But its ears are in constant motion, sensing the sounds both unique and pedestrian of an African wildlife preserve in the Mayacamas Mountains, just outside suburbia.

Though wobbly on its own four legs, it grew quickly adept at dodging Eesha’s heavy legs and feet, and her exceptionally long, curving horn, as it moved in a dance almost beneath its mother at times, rooting around in all the wrong places when first trying to nurse.

By Monday morning, the baby was nursing frequently and bonding well with Eesha, under the close eye of the animal care team and the preserve’s veterinarian, said Nancy Lang, who owns the 400-acre preserve and tourist attraction with her husband, Peter.

There had been some concern about Eesha’s first-time delivery, given her age, which can be associated with problems like breach births and even stillbirths, Nancy Lang said.

But veterinarian Emily Cehrs and the preserve’s handlers monitored Eesha and her unborn fetus closely in the months before its birth, in part through weekly blood draws, ultrasound and use of thermography to “see” the fetus’ location and movement inside its mother.

To have the calf arrive with such speed and apparent ease, and exhibit such strength and good health, “is just such a relief,” Lang said. “I think everyone is greatly relieved.”

Like four other species of rhinoceros on the planet, Africa’s wild white rhinoceros population is in decline, and its status classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as “near threatened” from habitat loss and the relentless poaching of the animals for their horns.

Though not as dire as the other species, all of them endangered, there are only about 16,000 southern white rhinos left on earth, making them the target of international conservation efforts. Only two, genetically distinct northern white rhinoceroses still exist. Both are females.

Eesha was brought to Safari West as a 4-year-old in 2008 with a male southern white, Mufasa, in hopes they would breed and contribute to the population being nurtured in captivity.

But the pair never gelled as breeding partners.

Eesha failed to mate successfully with another male, named Waldie, who was brought in later, as well.

Finally, in June 2021, Ongava arrived as a recommended match from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ white Rhino Species Survival Plan. He had sired several offspring elsewhere.

He and Eesha showed early signs of interest in each other and mated a few months after his arrival, resulting in the lengthy pregnancy that produced the new calf.

The gestation period for a white rhinoceros is 16 to 18 months. Eesha was just a week or two beyond what her handlers believed was the 16-month window when she showed little interest in her Saturday night feeding.

On Sunday morning, she was pacing, had her tail turned up and was very unhappy about any humans who came near, they said. A small amount of fluid later ran down her leg.

Eesha was in her heated barn when she finally gave birth shortly after 5:30 p.m., but was soon outside with her little one, where keepers provided hay to raise her energy and straw to provide a warm place for her to lie and nurse her calf.

Cehrs said they had plans to provide supplemental nourishment to Eesha’s offspring if there weren’t signs of successful nursing in a reasonable period of time, but that was not necessary once the pair settled down.

Though Eesha rose several times from their bedding just outside the barn and went inside, her baby did not follow, Lang said. The pair instead snuggled close in the cold air through the night, and thermography the next morning showed the calf was good and warm.

“She’s a very good mom,” Lang said of Eesha. “She had it on the straw bedding, and she had it very close to her the whole time when she was outside. She’s a very attentive mother.”

Safari West thinks of their now three rhinos as “a living reminder” of the plight of rhinoceros in the wild and has been eager to contribute to the species’ population in captivity.

The new calf “is certainly cause for celebration,” said Lang, “and such a relief.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.