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from the get-a-good-look-they-might-be-gone-in-your-lifetime dept.
A Sumatran rhino gave birth at a sanctuary in Indonesia on Thursday, an official said, taking the critically endangered species a step further away from extinction.
The female calf was born at 5:40 am on western Sumatra island, a spokesman for the environment ministry said.
It was the second baby born to rhino Ratu. Her previous birth four years ago marked the first time a Sumatran rhino had been born in an Asian breeding facility for more than 140 years.
The new calf and Ratu, whose name means "Queen" in Indonesian, were both in good health, with the newborn feeding within two hours, spokesman Novrizal Tahar told AFP.
...
Sumatran rhinos are extremely rare, with just 100 believed to exist in the world. The birth is a major boon for the species, which last year was declared extinct in Malaysia.
One baby is a "step further away from extinction."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 13 2016, @02:30PM
Wouldn't such large mammals need much more genetic variation to not go extinct soon (if anthropogenic climate change didn't make Earth uninhabitable first)?
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday May 13 2016, @05:07PM
Why does their size matter?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 13 2016, @07:40PM
actually, the bigger the animal, the smaller the amount of individuals generally alive with no threat of extinction. also, bigger animals apparently have better protections against cancer, which probably helps with a limited genetic pool...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 13 2016, @09:04PM
That's why the breeding programs track parents and offspring. By carefully selecting the breeding partners you can prevent inbreeding. Throw in some modern day molecular genetics and you can even make better selections.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 13 2016, @10:49PM
coming soon: the Roundup-resistant rhinoceros