Mister, You Don't Want to Make My Momma Mad

Alta, an adult greater one-horned rhino, and her 9-week old calf, Parvesh.
Photo courtesy of San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

When my caravan tours drive into a large African field exhibit at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and the guests see a crash of rhinos five feet away, they immediately turn to me with fear in their eyes wondering if the rhinos will charge the truck.

Nope. Rhinos are actually extremely gentle animals that have a bad reputation for no reason. The southern white rhinos and greater one-horned rhinos actually brush up against the caravan trucks on tours; they are inquisitive and are not bothered by the trucks or the guests. The keepers even work on foot in the exhibits around the rhinos. By the end of every tour, my guests are converts--they love rhinos as much as I do.

But that's not to say that rhinos are pushovers. Rhinos moms are probably the toughest mothers in the world (besides my mom). If her calf is threatened by a predator, a mother rhino will charge the predator at 30 miles per hour! If you are a lion and a 5,000 pound rhino is coming at you like a tank, that would be a good time to turn tail and run in the other direction. Adult rhinos don't have any natural predators because they are so large and intimidating. No lion will try to take down a healthy, fully grown rhino if there is a tasty snack-size gazelle five feet away. But baby rhinos have to worry about prides of lions and cackles of hyenas. One mother rhino doesn't stand much of a chance defending her calf from an entire pride of lions, so female rhinos band together into social herds, called crashes. Six or seven female rhinos defending two or three calves stand a much better chance. Female rhinos actually won't breed unless they are with other females for protection.

Zoos didn't discover this fact until 1971, when 20 southern white rhinos were brought to the Safari Park to start a breeding program. There wasn't an adult male in the crash, so the Park borrowed the adult male from the San Diego Zoo. The male had never had babies before: maybe he was infertile, too old, or just not interested in the female he was with. But he and the female were brought to the Park and he did a great job. And the female gave birth to eight calves, because she had other females watching her back to help protect those calves.

Female rhinos defend their calves because they put so much parental investment into raising a calf. Rhinos are pregnant for 16 months (yes, you read that correctly) and they nurse for up to two years. So mom has a lot of incentive to ensure that her baby survives into adulthood.

Southern white rhinos Kacy and 10-month old Kayode.
Photo courtesy of San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Kayode, the 93rd southern white rhino calf born at the Safari Park, was born on exhibit on February 25, 2013. Now he is over a year and a half old, and still nursing from his mom, Kacy. When he was born, he had to stand on tip-toes to nurse, and now he is so big (over 2,000 pounds!) that he has to lie down to nurse. Kacy is still incredibly protective of him, and I got to witness that first-hand on August 18th. Maoto, Kayode's dad, sniffed Kacy and started to make a move to mate with her. Kacy turned on a dime and growled at him. Kayode jumped between them, clearly thinking, "I'll save you, Momma!" Maoto picked Kayode up on his horn and threw Kayode. Maoto then proceeded to chase Kayode around the exhibit, while Kayode squealed and called for help. Kacy swerved between Maoto and Kayode, growling and roaring at Maoto. Kacy and Maoto sparred with their horns, shoved each other, and growled, but neither would back down. Then the rest of the crash, the five other female rhinos, came charging down the hill to defend Kacy. They formed a perfectly straight line at Kacy's back; now it was seven against one. The girls allowed Kacy to fight her own battle against Maoto for almost 20 minutes, but finally stepped in and advanced like a line of knights in shining armor. Maoto ran away squealing, streaked across the exhibit at 30 miles per hour, and flopped in a mud wallow as far from the girls as possible. Kacy: 1, Maoto: 0. Kayode is nearing puberty now so Maoto is starting to see him as a competing male, instead of a baby. Kacy let Maoto know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this behavior is unacceptable, no matter how mature Kayode seems. Girl power.

Unfortunately, no rhino mother can protect her baby against the ultimate threat. Even if a baby rhino survives to adulthood in the wild, it is not safe. All six species of rhinos are threatened by poachers. Poachers kill rhinos because rhino horn is worth more per ounce than gold. Some cultures believe that rhino horn has medicinal properties: that it can lower a fever or act as an aphrodisiac. Rhino horn is actually made of keratin (the same stuff as your hair and fingernails). So you could bite your nails and get the same benefits that you would get from ingesting rhino horn. Plus there are much more sustainable alternatives, like aspirin and Viagra, that are cheap, over-the-counter, and don't result in the death of thousands of rhinos each year. In 2012, in South Africa alone, two rhinos were killed per day. The poachers are mainly organized crime syndicates and terrorist groups, who use the proceeds to fund their illicit activities. It's tough to tell terrorists what to do, so the solution is to NEVER buy rhino horn products.

Rhinos are disappearing at an alarming rate. Just by appreciating them as much as I do, you can help save them. Who wouldn't want to save an animal that can simultaneously be incredibly impressive and so stinkin' cute?