A humble mother is expecting her second child somewhere in Cincinnati zoo. This is wonderful news for her kind, considering she is a critically endangered Black Rhinoceros. Her name is Seiya, and her baby is due any time now.

Silly Seyia the black rhino playing with a stick! A rhino has three toes on each foot. They also have a poor sense of sight and rely instead on their senses of smell and hearing. pic.twitter.com/JNISZIPSkZ

— Cincinnati Zoo (@CincinnatiZoo) March 4, 2020

Rhinos are, unfortunately, no strangers to being endangered.

In addition to the Black Rhinoceros, there is also the White Rhinoceros, the Javan Rhinoceros, Indian Rhinoceros, and Sumatran Rhinoceros.

They are the last four surviving members of the family Rhinocerotidae, and unless urgent conservation efforts are made, we could lose all of them before the end of the century.

Although the situation is rather urgent, it’s not hopeless. Conservation efforts have worked with tremendous success in the past, and moreover, more people than ever are committed to preserving the natural world.

BIG news! Seyia is pregnant and due any day! Eastern black rhinos are critically endangered, so this is great news for the species. This will be her second calf with dad Faru. 🦏 pic.twitter.com/xOU4MrHa27

— Cincinnati Zoo (@CincinnatiZoo) August 10, 2020

Black Rhinos like Seiya are known by the scientific name Diceros bicornis. They can be distinguished from the White Rhinoceros by the shape of their mouths – the lips in particular.

Lips don’t lie

The White Rhinoceros is pretty much the mascot for Rhinos. The image you popularly associate with Rhinos is almost definitely a White Rhinoceros. Thus, it’d be pretty useful to know how to ID the other chubby unicorns.

For starters, the White Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum, has a wide, square-shaped set of lips on its mouth. This is how it got its other name of “Square-lipped Rhino”. Furthermore, the White Rhino is the most well-known Rhino for good reason.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2ufd-3H6Wy/

Ceratotherium simum is not only the largest species of Rhino, it is also the most abundant. Its Southern variant has about 20,000 individuals in the wild. The largest of all living Rhino species, the White Rhino can tip the scales at 2 tons, or 4,400 pounds.

Naturally, they are off-limits for all predators. Even the bravest lions won’t dare go after 2 tons of pure muscle with a weapon on its head.

Being abundant is a pretty huge deal for Rhinos, in case you haven’t guessed.

Though all that bulk and horn isn’t enough to stop poachers, who can easily bring down a Rhino from a distance away with a firearm. The White Rhino, specifically the Southern White Rhino, numbers in at 17,480 individuals. That’s pretty noteworthy when you learn that they were close to extinction just a few decades ago.

The story of rhinos and how they conquered the world http://t.co/kVdktYOj7k #WorldRhinoDay pic.twitter.com/3ZIfsMvYZA

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) September 22, 2015

Without a doubt, conservation efforts can work miracles. Now, how about the other three Rhinos?

The Sumatran Rhino isn’t doing well, at all. As of present time, their total population is is at a saddening number of just 80 individuals.

COVID-19 has complicated some plans to breed them, and if the situation doesn’t improve for them, the species might suffer from inbreeding depression.

That’s when the biological fitness of a population is affected by low genetic diversity. Though 80 rhinos are better than 0, and every last bit of hope and effort could still save them.

The other two Rhino species, the Javan Rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) and Indian Rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis), both belong to the genus Rhinoceros (yes, Rhinoceros is both a common name and a scientific one!). Neither of them are doing pretty hot either. There are just over 50 of the Javan rhino left in the wild, and 2,575 for the Indian Rhino.

The Indian rhino, with its single horn, is a real unicorn http://t.co/iaOczr226c pic.twitter.com/UioD0LvUro

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) May 23, 2015

Evidently, Rhinos are in pretty hot water thanks to decades of poaching and habitat loss. Hence why pregnancies like Seiya’s are nearly a cause for celebration. Invite us to the next rhino baby shower, please!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn_wlstHtDS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

The Cincinnati Zoo talks about Seiya more in their blog post.

“Seyia has learned so much over the past year here in Cincinnati. We train all of our animals to do lots of different husbandry behaviors, which helps us provide them with the best care possible. This is especially important when caring for rhinos.”

It isn’t easy caring for a 1-ton moody herbivore with a built-in horn on its head.

Black Rhinos are very defensive and aggressive animals. That’s great when mommy rhino needs to protect her calf, but not so much when you’re a zookeeper trying to look after one.

“The black rhino has a reputation for being extremely aggressive, charging readily at threats. They have even been observed charging tree trunks and termite mounds in the wild! So it takes a very strong bond between keepers and their rhinos to accomplish all that we need to do with them.”

A scarred, one-eared black rhino with a broken horn, looking like an old seasoned warrior #EarthCapture by Mogens Trolle pic.twitter.com/RKPuZsnE90

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) July 13, 2017

So let’s all send our congratulations to the expecting mother! Here’s hoping her calf will grow up in a world with more of their kind thriving in the wild. In the meantime, we must continue conservation and education efforts to help protect precious Rhinos like Seiya.

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Source: [Cincinnati Zoo Twitter, World Wildlife Fund, Cincinnati Zoo Blog, Rhinoceroses on Wikipedia]