Two big little bundles of joy are on the way for Portland – The Oregon Zoo is expecting an eastern black rhinoceros baby in the next couple months and, in 2025, a new elephant calf.
Why 2025? That’s because elephant gestation lasts longer than that of any other living mammal, nearly two years.
The double pachyderm pregnancy means Jozi, an eastern black rhinoceros, and Rose-Tu, an Asian elephant, are both expecting at the same time, but by the time that baby elephant is born, the baby rhino won’t be a baby anymore.
Both announcements from the zoo are hopeful ones for threatened species.
For the eastern black rhinoceros, which include Jozi and her male companion King, this is especially true,
“These two rhinos – soon to be three, we hope – represent a species that’s among the most endangered on the planet,” said Kelly Gomez, who oversees the zoo’s Africa area, in a statement from the zoo. “Poaching and the illegal wildlife trade have wiped out 96% of the world’s black rhino population.”
In Elephant Lands, the news of a possible calf is also hopeful. Zoo officials say that Samson, 25, is the father of the newest calf and think that conception occurred in late May, and the calf might be born in early 2025.
The announcement is also a reminder of how difficult gestation and life can be for a young elephant. If Rose-Tu, 29, delivers a live calf, it will be her third. Her second calf, Lily, died suddenly at age six in 2018 from a viral infection. Her first calf, Samudra, is 15 and lives with her at the Oregon Zoo.
In 2019, another Asian elephant, Chendra, suffered a miscarriage about eight months into her pregnancy while she was under treatment for tuberculosis, which the zoo said was not related to the miscarriage.
Miscarriage is common in all mammal species, zoo officials noted at the time.
“We’re hoping for the best,” Steve Lefave, who oversees the zoo elephant area, said in the press release of the two current pregnancies. “We have an excellent animal-care team, and they’ll be doing everything they can to help each of these moms have a successful birth.”
— Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052; lacker@oregonian.com; @lizzzyacker
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