Amazing animal babies giant baby born size of a first-grader! Dad gives birth on ice! Stork brings bundle to two-million-year-old! Plus: shell shocker exposed

Science World, Feb 25, 2002 by Mona Chiang

Emi, Andalas's mother, had previously miscarried within the first three months in five pregnancies. "Sometimes, when animals miscarry at an early stage, it's because of a hormone [brain chemical that regulates body functions] deficiency," says animal reproductive physiologist Terri Roth at the Cincinnati Zoo. During the sixth trial, ultrasound (technology using high-frequency sound waves to map body-organ shapes) detected the pregnancy at 16 days after breeding. So Roth immediately began feeding Emi daily doses of progesterone (hormone essential to pregnancy) injected into bread. Emi fed on the supplement for 465 days. Ten days later, Andalas arrived. "We can't say if that's what did it," Roth says. "But it seems so."

Perhaps the biggest scientific challenge is to get Sumatran rhinos to breed. In the wild, these rhinos are extremely solitary. Usually, a bull (male) seeks out a cow (female) only when he detects a scent signaling she's prepared to mate. But when the female isn't receptive, there can be a lot of aggression among the sexes. Breeding centers established near or in the reserves have yet to produce a successful pregnancy.

As for Emi and Ipuh (Andalas's father), "the animal managers were afraid to get them together," says Roth. To gage the right timing, she tried to measure Emi's hormone levels and ovulation (egg-producing) cycle. "But I never saw her ovulate." A successful mating revealed this rhino species is an induced ovulator (ovulates only after breeding, rather than on a periodic cycle). "With only one animal to study, we kept questioning if it was a fluke," Roth explains. But later findings proved similar results.

The zoo estimates Andalas will reach maturity in five years, and it has plans to carefully document the calf's physical and behavioral growth--including regular plaster casts of his widening hoofs. The data could help rhino census-takers track and protect calves in the wild: Sumatran rhinos are so elusive they're counted by hoof prints. "It's exciting," says Roth. "One birth can change so much about what we know."

VITAL STATS

SPECIES: SUMATRAN RHINOCEROS (DICERORHINUS SUMATRENSIS)

HABITAT: FORESTS OF INDONESIA AND MALAYSIA

LIFE SPAN: ABOUT 30 YEARS

SIZE: 1 TO 1.5 M (3.3 TO 5 FT) TALL, 2.5 TO 2.8 M (8 TO 9 FT) LONG

WEIGHT: 600 TO 800 KG (1,322 TO 1,763 LB)

DIET: HERBIVORES (PLANT EATERS), THEY FEED ON BRANCHES AND LEAVES.

FACT: THE SMALLEST AND MOST ENDANGERED OF FIVE RHINO SPECIES, IT'S ALSO CALLED THE "HAIRY RHINO" BECAUSE OF ITS SHAGGY BODY.

WATER BABY

Last December, visitors to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Florida got a bonus eyeful. They witnessed Cleo, a hippopotamus cow, deliver a girl calf--Moxie--after an eight-month gestation. Most hippo births take place in the water; newborns can swim and nurse underwater immediately. At birth, a calf weighs between 27 to 45 kg (60 to 100 lb). Adult hippos weigh up to 3,175 kg (7,000 lb) and can live for 50 years.

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Cross-Curricular Connection

Conservation: Besides Sumatran rhinoceroses, there are many other endangered species on Earth. Select one animal and report on its threats. What measures are being taken to help protect the species?