Czech black rhino calf named Kyiv to honor Ukraine’s heroes

Prague, March 16 (EFE).- An endangered black rhino calf born in a Czech safari has been named Kyiv, the park announced on Wednesday.

Born on March 4 in the Czech safari park of Dvur Kralove, the zoo said the male calf had been named in honor of the Ukrainian people.

“His name is another expression of our support for Ukrainian heroes,” Premysl Rabas, director of the safari in the north of the Czech Republic, told reporters.

Michal Stastný, the zoo’s spokesman, told Efe that the rhino’s mother, Eva, had calmed down and was cooperating with milk expression which will assist with feeding other rhino calves.

Once frozen, the milk can then be shipped to any zoo in the world that encounters problems weaning animals, he added.

Kyiv, who was born weighing 33 kg, has fattened up to 50 kg and is gaining one kilo a day.

Since the zoo started breeding black rhinos, a two horned subspecies (Diceros bicornis michaeli), in 1971, 47 rhinos have been born in Dvur Kralove.

Nine animals were transferred to Tanzania in 2009 and Rwanda in 2019, while others have moved to other zoos across the world.

Dvur Kralove has managed the most successful breeding program for rhinos in captivity and is currently home to 14 endangered black rhinos.

Some 800 rare black rhinos live in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. EFE

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