Folly Farm expecting a new baby rhino

The Folly Farm family is expected to grow later this year, as the team announce their breeding female Dakima is pregnant with her second baby.

Transcript

00:00You know, what started over 30 years ago as a little dairy farm to now have rhinos that

00:09could one day go back into the wild is absolutely amazing.

00:13Folly Farm is a family holiday staple for so many people in Wales, but on top of that

00:18fun day out, the team worked tirelessly to help endangered species of animals survive

00:23and have babies and keep species alive.

00:25This year Folly Farm have announced some very special news as they're set to get another

00:29baby as part of the family in the form of a little rhino calf due later this year.

00:34So we have eastern black rhinos here at Folly Farm and we have three rhinos.

00:41We have a breeding pair and a non-breeding female.

00:45She's unable to breed because of a few health issues, but our breeding pair have already

00:50bred and giving birth to Glyn in 2020.

00:54And we're pleased to announce that in November a new calf will be born, if all goes well,

01:02to Dekima and Nkosi.

01:06Spare a thought for Dekima, who's been pregnant since August and is carrying a baby rhino for

01:10well over a year.

01:11The team of Folly Farm say they're making sure to give her extra care and attention while

01:15she's carrying the new baby and need to stock up a little bit of food.

01:19But can you blame her?

01:19She's got an awfully big extra mouth to feed.

01:22So, yeah, she conceived in August last year.

01:26It's a 15 to 16 month gestation.

01:29So, yeah, a really long time.

01:31But that ensures that when the calf is born, it's able to get up, walk around, even run

01:38around away from many predators in the wild.

01:41So they keep it nice and safely inside them until the very last minute and it pops out.

01:48But Dekima will get increased care, so she may have an increase in appetite to feed that

01:54extra little body.

01:57The eastern black rhino are one of the most endangered species of rhinoceros in the world.

02:01Jack says it's really important to the team at Folly Farm to be able to help species like

02:05this, given their low numbers in the wild.

02:09So there's lots of different types of rhino, but the specific ones that we have, they're known

02:13as the eastern black rhino, and there are around 1,400 of them left in the wild.

02:20Their numbers are increasing, thankfully, but rhinos in general aren't doing very well

02:26because of the poaching for their horn.

02:28So the horn is used in traditional Asian medicine in places like China and Vietnam.

02:35And about two or three rhinos a day are killed in South Africa alone, and that's purely just

02:43for their horn.

02:44And it doesn't have any medicinal value, so it's actually been scientifically proven.

02:50This won't be Dekima's first baby, though, as she's already had Glyn, born in 2020, who's

02:55hoped to be part of a breeding pair in the near future.