Rare white rhino calf born in Oxfordshire

The Cotswold Wildlife Park in Oxfordshire has been celebrating, after a new white rhino calf was born there.

This species of rhino are quite rare, and Markus is the only white rhino to be born in the UK this year.

The new addition brings the total number of rhinos at the wildlife park to eight – the highest number it has ever had.

Markus will now stay with his mum for about two years and so far seems to have been settling into life there well.

Keepers were present the evening Markus was born and his birth was even caught on camera, with Head Keeper Mark Godwin saying he was "one of most confident calves I've seen".

Mum Nancy and dad Monty have previously had six other babies together - impressive, given that rhino females only reproduce every two to three years.

That's because it takes a long time for a rhino to grow to full-term, and so rhino mums can be pregnant for up to a year and a half.

This is one of the longest gestation periods of any land mammal, with only Elephant's having a longer pregnancy period of twenty-two months.

Markus has been named in memory of scientist Dr Markus Borner, who has been described as a "giant of conservation".

Dr Bonner won the prestigious Blue Planet Prize in 2016, and helped re-populate parts of Tanzania's Serengeti with rhinos after their numbers severely dropped due to poaching, before passing away in 2020.

The park has said that rhino calf Markus was proving to be a "high-spirited and boisterous addition", who has been "delighting" visitors with "energetic outbursts".

Markus is the 12th calf to be born there in the space of 12 years.