A contest to name a rare endangered black rhino calf in Michigan is over. The rhino born over the holidays at the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing has been named Jaali. The voting ended at midnight on January 8th.
The birth of the calf marked the first time in the 100 year history of the zoo that such a creature was born there. Jaali was born on Christmas Eve of 2019. Jaali was born to a rhino named Doppsee. This was Doppsee's first pregnancy.
The zoo has released the following additional information:
Mother and calf are bonding behind the scenes in the rhino barn at Potter Park Zoo and will not be visible to the public until weather allows in the spring of 2020.
Black rhinos are critically endangered and are being pushed to the brink of extinction by illegal poaching and loss of habitat. Current estimates show that only about 5,000 individual black rhinos are alive in the wild today.
There are just over 50 black rhinos in the care of AZA accredited zoos which are managed by the Species Survival Plan (SSP). The SSP maintains a genetically healthy population of black rhinos in zoos. The father, Phineus, came to Potter Park Zoo in 2017 from Texas specifically to breed with Doppsee. On average less than two black rhino calves are born in human care each year, making every calf born vital to this endangered population.