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| Location: |
Captive - Europe |
| Subject: |
Captivity - Zoo Records |
| Species: |
Black Rhino |
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As already mentioned, Hagenbeck's Molly was acquired for 6,000 talers in July 1870. Sudan is mentioned as her country of origin. Molly probably lived till 1887. According to Kourist (1973), black rhinos had been previously shown in Antwerp (1858) and London (1868), but the data on the Antwerp animal are doubtful. In 1878 another four young black rhinos came to Berlin Zoo with Hagenbeek's'Nubia'caravan.
In 1904 a female arrived in Berlin which had been caught for the zoo by the African traveller and animal photographer Schillings. This animal lived till 1908. In 1907 another female, which lived till 1917, arrived as a gift of the Negus of Abyssinia (Reynolds, 1963). A bull acquired in November 1909 to be her mate died of a colic just one year later. In 1928 Lutz Heck. director of Berlin Zoo from 1931 to 1945, caught the male black rhino Mtoto in East Africa; this animal died in 1943 during an air attack on Berlin, when the elephant pagoda was destroyed. In 1939 Christoph Schultz supplied a two-year-old female, which was given to Hagenbeek the following year. In December 1940 Heck bought from Hagenbeek an adult female for the sum of DM18,000, but she died of TB in May 1941. After the war, the species did not return to Berlin until 1954, when, as mentioned above, Dr Heinroth acquired the four-year-old Arusha, born in Kenya. The bull Meru followed in 1957 to become her mate. This male, born in 1955, came from East Africa; he died in 1975 at the age of 20. In 1976 Arusha was given to Kano Zoo in Nigeria, where she was killed by a bull in 1978. This bull, Embu, was born in Kenya in 1969; he lived at Berlin Zoo on loan from 1975 to 1976, and travelled to Kano together with Arusha.
Three black rhinos from Kenya reached Berlin in 1975 - the female Kitani, born in 1972, and the pair Mbololo and Kilaguni, born in 1974. Another female, Mzima, also born in Kenya in 1972, followed in 1977. All these animals belonged to the subspecies michaeli. They are the founders of Berlin Zoo's breeding group. Twelve calves have been born here, in 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991 (two), 1994, 1995 and 1996. A male calf in 1988 was a premature birth; the other11 calves were reared, though two of them died in their second year of life.
A total of five cows participated in this breeding. Kitani gave birth to her first young in 1981; Kilaguni has had three calves up till now, in 1986, 1991, and 1994; and six calves (including the premature one) were born to Mzima. Two females born here have each given birth to one calf so far.
Apart from the imported bull Mbololo, three other bulls have participated in breeding. Klaus, who came from Leipzig Zoo in 1988, sired four calves (including the premature birth); Tatu, born in Berlin Zoo in 1984, is the father of two calves; and Kibo, born in Africa in 1965 and father of two calves at Magdeburg Zoo, came on loan to Berlin in 1994 and is the father of the latest calf, a female born in 1996. From 1988 to 1992 the bull Cody, born in Sydney, lived at Berlin Zoo, but he failed to breed and was given to Dvur Kra1ove in the Czech Republic.
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Rhinos in Berlin
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