Last month, the Oregon Zoo welcomed a new resident, an eastern black rhinoceros, named King.
King is the first rhinoceros to call the Rhino Ridge habitat home, which is one of eight community supported projects that resulted from the zoo bond measure that passed in 2008. Design on the habitat began in 2016, with construction starting in 2018 and finally finishing earlier this year, just in time for it’s first resident.
Kelly Gomez, who is in charge of the rhino sector at the Oregon Zoo, said that, “King represents a species that’s among the most endangered on the planet. Poaching and the illegal wildlife trade have wiped out 96% of the world’s black rhino population. In South Africa alone, we’re losing almost a rhino a day. Hopefully, we can help inspire a new chapter in the conservation of this incredible species.”
The eastern black rhinoceros is a critically endangered subspecies. The western black rhinoceros was declared extinct in 2011.
According to UK naturalist Steve Backshall, “We’ve gone from half a million to a few thousand rhinos left in the blink of an eye. While those left in the wild are ludicrously precious, the rhinos that are in zoos (which were bred there, born there and cannot ever be released into the wild) are of disproportionate importance to their kind.”
According to the Oregon Zoo, a female rhino will join King before the end of the year.
If you’d like to see King while he explores his new domain, the Oregon Zoo is open Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm, and Saturday and Sunday 9am to 5:30pm.
(Photos: Oregon Zoo/YouTube)
