7-year-old rehabilitated rhino orphan Twinkle, gave birth to a tiny female calf in early November, showing just how effective these programmes are for rhino conservation.
Undisclosed Location, South Africa (09 December 2022) – Earlier this year, rhino conservation history was made at Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary with the arrival of a southern white rhino calf born to orphaned rhinos Wyntir and Storm. Now, all these months later, a fourth beautiful rhino calf has been born to orphan Twinkle and one of the male rhino orphans.
Petronel Nieuwoudt founded care For Wild Rhino Sanctuary in 2011, and just a few months later, she opened her home to the very first rhino orphan. A few years later, the Rhino Poaching crisis was at its height, and the Kruger National Park needed somewhere safe to send the orphans found in the park.
The rhino species is estimated to be less than ten years away from extinction, and South Africa is at the centre of the rhino poaching war. The Kruger National Park has seen a decline in white rhino populations of 75% since 2011. In 2014 SANParks joined forces with Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary and created a Memorandum of Understanding to safeguard this heritage and the species’ future by rescuing and protecting the orphans left behind.
All the orphans receive extensive care and rehabilitation before entering the rewilding and release programme. All rhinos who are released back into a natural ecosystem continue to be protected 24/7 by guards, as well as an elite K9 and Mounted Unit.
It is through this programme, the team has seen so many new births. It is something to be incredibly proud of and shows that these efforts are paying off!
The celebrated the new birth in early November, sharing Twinkle’s story and a video about the new birth.
“At 22:38 on Wednesday 2nd November, rehabilitated and released rhino orphan Twinkle, gave birth to a tiny female calf. The white rhino calf is the 4th calf to be born at Care for Wild this year with both her parents being rehabilitated orphans of poaching.
Twinkle arrived in 2016 after poachers killed her mother. Twinkle herself also suffered machete injuries at the hands of the poachers. She underwent a long and extensive rehabilitation before entering the rewilding and release programme in 2018.
At 7 years old, Twinkle became a mother for the first time yesterday evening when she gave birth in the Intensive Protection Zone under the monitoring of her long time protectors. The calf is very small and took a while to stand but eventually began to suckle, drinking the vitally important colostrum that will support her immunity and development.
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“We are so incredibly proud of Twinkle, humbled by her strength, and so grateful for this beautiful new life.”
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