Rhino Calf Trip: Kaziranga to Manas

Today, Purabi was translocated from Kaziranga to Manas. Wait, who is Purabi, eh? Well, she is a female rhino calf who was separated from its mother during the flooding of  the river flowing through Kaziranga National Park. Se was then rescued by the Assam Forest Department and local people near Haldibari area and admitted to the CWRC .Since then, CWRC located near Kaziranga National Park of Assam has been taking care of her.

CWRC stands for Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation  was established in 2002 in a joint initiative of Assam Forest Department and WTI-IFAW partnership. Now IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) is the international partner of WTI( Wildlife Trust of India)

Anyhow, now Purbi will provide a good company to another orphan Dwimalu, a male calf who was very young when rescued.Since April, Forest Department authorities is taking caer of him and they are also assisted by IFAW-WTI in Manas. His mother was one of the wild rhinos translocated under the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 by Government of India. But sadly, she was killed by poachers earlier this year.But now, Dwimalu won't be alone anymore. The two Rhino calfs will be hand-reared together to avoid stress level amongst them and then they will be released into wild.

Seems like a cute little rhino love story??Do share your views!

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Officially Extinct: Western Black Rhinos

IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) has declared the Africa’s Western black rhino is now as officially extinct! Being a subspecies of black rhino, this creature was declared extinct on the grounds that it has not been spotted since 2006.The IUCN also warns that other rhinos could follow.

Africa's northern white rhino is teetering on the brink of extinction while Asia's Javan rhino is making its last stand due to continued poaching and lack of conservation.

The blame goes to the greed of human beings. The uncontrolled hunting by poachers and lack of concervation is responsible for this truly tragic news for the planet. As recently reported by News24 and TimesLive 129 people have been arrested for Rhino poaching since the beginning of 2013. 446 rhinos have been poached across Africa since the beginning of the year.

....Another species gone forever. When will the genocide of the planets species stop at the hands of humans?

Do share your thoughts with us.

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Artificial Insemination Epic: Baby Rhino at Alabama zoo

In Alabma's Montgomery Zoo, the world witnesses the first rhino calf to thrive after being conceived through Artificial Insemination, thanks to Assisted Reproductive Technologies. Born on June 5, the calf who weighed 40.8 Kilograms has already gained another 5.5 Kilograms.

The insemination process was carried out by Dr. Monica Stoops on 12 year old female Rhino named Jeta in February 2012. Working on artificial insemination of rhinos since 2004 success came to Dr. Monica just recently, after two failures.

The sperm collected from the elite male rhino named Himal in 2004 was stored in Cincinnati Zoo's CryoBioBank under Cryopresrevation and thus Himal became the lucky guy rhino to become the father of world's first rhino conceived through artificial insemination.

Zoo authorities named Himal and Jeta's uber special and really cute as "Ethan", after Ethan Gilman, the kindergartener who was kidnapped and held hostage for nearly a week in January.

Artificial insemination is really a boon in case of rhinos because naturally they are too aggressive to mate and this may also lead to injuries and deaths.

So, with the really endangered population of Indian Rhinoceros, now zoologists have found a new hope in the novel method to sustain the Rhino population!

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