NGM208 - Baby Rhino Birth
4m 30s
The white rhino populations of southern Africa remarkably continue to grow despite the sad history of poaching and slaughter. For a species that almost vanished from the earth, the birth of every infant is significant. This event is witnessed by amateur filmmakers who diligently wait out a cow’s gestation to term, after witnessing the unique courtship and mating rituals of the adult pair. The newborn calf can stand in an hour and within two months is fully mobile and boisterously playful. At three months its horn begins to protrude, the very object of persecution subjected by the adult rhino’s only predator, greedy man. As an infant, the baby is vulnerable to nature’s predators but is aggressively protected by the entire herd and responds obediently to its mother’s alarms.