Ratu's pregnancy lasted about 16 months |
A Sumatran
rhinoceros - one of the world's most endangered species - has given birth at a
sanctuary in Indonesia.
Conservationists
at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Way Kambas National Park said the mother,
Ratu, and her male calf were both "very well".
It is only
the fourth recorded case of a Sumatran rhino being born in captivity in a century.
There are
thought to be fewer than 200 alive in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Their
numbers have dropped by 50% over the past 20 years, largely due to poaching and
loss of habitat.
'Big
present'
A spokesman
for Indonesia's forest ministry, Masyhud, told the AFP news agency that Ratu's
labour had gone "smoothly and naturally".
"It's
really a big present for the Sumatran rhino breeding efforts as we know that
this is a very rare species which have some difficulties in their
reproduction," he added.
"This
is the first birth of a Sumatran rhino at a sanctuary in Indonesia."
It was
Ratu's third pregnancy. The previous two ended in miscarriages.
The father
of the baby rhino, Andalas, was born at Cincinnati Zoo in the US in 2001 - the
first Sumatran rhino to be delivered in captivity in 112 years.
He was
brought to Indonesia in 2009 to mate with Ratu, who was born in the wild but
wandered out of a forest and was taken in by the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary.
On Friday,
the US-based International Rhino Foundation said that a veterinary team would
harvest Ratu's placental cells, which could be used to generate stem cells.
Stem cells
had the potential to be useful for many purposes in the near future, including
curing diseases and helping promote reproduction, it said.
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