White Rhino Calf Born At Toronto Zoo!

‪@TorontoZooChannel‬ TORONTO, ON, Friday December 29, 2023: Sometimes the best gifts come following the holiday season! In the case of Toronto Zoo, they were delivered an extra special one: a white rhino calf!

At 7:58 am yesterday morning, Thursday, December 28th, Toronto Zoo was thrilled to welcome white rhino Sabi’s first calf to their Zoo family! While every rhino pregnancy is exciting, Sabi’s was especially so. Following her arrival in Toronto in 2012, hormone monitoring performed by Reproductive Science team identified that Sabi exhibited "long" estrus cycles (~70 days in length, compared to the typical ~30 days of fertile females), which have made conception a significant challenge for her. Following continual adjustments in daily care and diet, Sabi’s behaviour in spring 2022 suggested that her hormonal cycles had switched from the long cycles to the typical cycle length. The likelihood of successfully conceiving for the first time drops with age in many species, including white rhinos, and Zoo staff were keenly aware of this with Sabi. Your Toronto Zoo Wildlife Care and Reproductive Science teams were thrilled that the breeding introductions with white rhino male Tom in summer 2022 were successful. This is the second calf sired by the 15-year-old rhino. His first calf, Theo, was born December 24, 2017, and left Toronto in late 2021.