KWS; We have a baby White rhino, but still too early to tell if it’s a boy or girl

Kenya Wildlife Service(KWS) on Saturday afternoon excitedly announced the birth of Southern White Rhino in Nairobi National Park.

“We are thrilled to report the birth of a white rhino in Nairobi National Park.The lucky mother rhino had gone into hiding from hawk-eyed rangers only for her to resurface today with a three-day-old calf,” said KWS.

A welcome #Valentines addition to the family pic.twitter.com/rjBKO7bVtU

— KWS (@kwskenya) February 15, 2020

The Southern White rhino belongs to a sub-species of rhinos that are considered Near Threatened in the conservation terminology. The Northern White rhino species is Near Extinct since there only two known females remaining in the whole universe.

When contacted by PD Online, KWS communications officer Paul Udoto confirmed that the baby rhino was of the Southern White species but it was too early to tell if the calf was male or female.

Even with the excitement surrounding its sighting, Udoto revealed to us that the baby needs a natural environment and coming too close to it would be unnecessarily intrusive.

“Please note that we have not yet determined the sex of the baby rhino because capturing to examine it would be unnecessarily intrusive and stressful to both mother and new born,” said Udoto.

As such, it was hard to tell if the baby was male or female through simple observation.

The birth of the white rhino spells life to the conservation efforts of the rare species.