This short video from the Howletts Wild Animal Park captures the moment an endangered black rhinoceros entered the world last month. It’s the grand finale of a 15 month long gestation.
The first thing you see are the tiny front hooves. Then, like most mammals, the baby exits head-first. A twist of mom’s body strips off the amniotic sac and umbilical cord. (It’s a boy, by the way.)
Like other hoofed mammals, the baby is physically precocious: that tiny mini-rhino is trying to stand up before his mom has even finished ejecting the placenta from her uterus.
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