Three exceptional births at Lunaret Zoo, including the first white rhinoceros born in Montpellier

Le premier rhinocéros blanc né à Montpellier DR

En moins d’un mois, le zoo de Lunaret à Montpellier, a accueilli trois naissances : un rhinocéros blanc, un coendou et un casoar à casque. La naissance du rhinocéros était très attendue !

Saturday July 20, the Lunaret zoo in Montpellier welcomed a small white rhino. An exceptional event for a species in danger of extinction. At the end of 2022, there were only 27,000 individuals left across the world. The little rhino was therefore eagerly awaited, after 16 months of gestation. Nola, the 8-year-old female, and Troy, the 13-year-old male, had mated more than a year ago. This is the first viable birth of a white rhino in the zoo.

A coendou and a helmeted cassowary

Le coendo du zoo de Lunaret DR

It was Vida and Drago, aged two, who opened the birth process with the arrival of their little one on June 23. After 200 days of gestation, this coendou – or tree porcupine – is one of eight coendous born in Europe in the last twelve months.

The second hatching of a southern cassowary in Europe DR

A few weeks later, Makurpa, a 17-year-old male southern cassowary, became a single father. In these large birds, the male is responsible for raising the young. The hatching of this cassowary is only the second in a European zoo in a year. An achievement for the Lunaret team and for this species considered vulnerable, whose number of individuals continues to decrease.