Charlees stretches her legs in the Safari Park's wide-open exhibit space.
Two months after the birth of Charlees, our greater one-horned rhino, we were almost ready to let her explore the exhibit with her first-time mother, Alta (see post Preparing for a Rhino Debut). In the past month, we had watched Charlees grow up a lot and even start to build relationships with the keepers. Alta became much more accepting of the keepers, allowing us to call the calf over to introduce her to being touched around the head and letting her investigate things. The new mother kept a careful watch over Charlees, but she seemed to be much more comfortable with sharing some baby time with us! Charlees became interested in solid food just a little while ago and seems to love bananas. She came barreling at the keepers for a tiny piece of banana! This was an excellent foundation for starting a training program with her, but more on that in a future blog post.
The Asian Savanna field exhibit at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, which is usually pretty quiet, had been dynamic and very busy lately. Alta and Charlees were progressing well, and they even spent some time visiting with the rest of the rhinos, Bhopu, Tanaya, Kaya, and Sundari, through a “howdy” window. They were ready to be reunited with Alta and the new little one. We gave them lots of treats in these areas to encourage this social behavior and provided some enrichment for the little family while they were temporarily in the boma, a fenced-off area within the Asian Savanna.
In preparation for their introduction to the exhibit, we planned to move the big guy, Bhopu, into the boma for awhile to give the girls a chance to get acquainted with things on their own. It’s a big exhibit to learn how to navigate, and it would be a lot less intimidating without the curious Bhopu lurking around!
On March 20, Bhopu was moved into the boma, and Alta and Charlees were released into the field. Alta was excited, yet nervous to be out there with her calf. She allowed Tanaya and Sundari to say hello to Charlees but remained very aware of their response to this new rhino. Alta is so protective, but after a few days getting reacquainted with the exhibit, we hope that she will relax a little and settle right back into the herd.
You can find Alta tucked away in the rocky part of Asian Savanna, caring for and protecting her young one. She has started approaching the feed truck again but doesn’t stay long because Charlees is almost always on the move. Her little legs run and run, and Mom stays close behind her. We’ll continue to let Alta and Charlees get acclimated to the exhibit for now and hope that she will start bringing her kid over to say hello very soon!
Jonnie Capiro is a keeper at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
Does Charlees EVER walk anywhere? She’s very cute… Glad introductions are going well. In the wild, would the male stay with the group? Thanks!
She does walk, sometimes, but then it turns into a trot, and quickly she’s full-on running! In the wild, these rhinos are typically solitary, so the male would not be with the group. The calf may stay with Mom for up to four years. In our exhibit, we have interesting group dynamics: two of our girls, Asha and Tanaya, have younger sisters out here, too. The sister pairs are almost always together. Alta now hangs out with Charlees, sometimes with the group, sometimes alone. And Bhopu, when he’s on exhibit, can sometimes be found alone, but often he likes to stay with the girls. It’s interesting watching their social dynamics!
that little child (Charlees) is so sweet. next to elephants, I believe rhinos are just adorable. I don’t recall if you already blogged about it but was Charlees named after someone (like a donor)?
Hi, I agree that rhinos are pretty adorable! Charlees was just a cute name that we found from the Bengali language. Thanks for posting!
Thanks for the follow up blog Jonnie. Charlees is so much fun to watch. I just love the part in the video where Charlees is running and Alta is just trotting behind.
She’s in such a hurry to see the world!
Boy can she run! Soooo cute!!!
Is Bhopu the father? If he is, will he ever be introduced to Charlees?
Yes, Bhopu is Charlees’ father, and he will be back out with the whole group after the calf has had some time to acclimate to the exhibit with her mom, Alta. Thanks for reading!
So wonderful to see Charlees running free and being an excited young rhino! I support the International Rhino Foundation (expecting a new one in Sumatra later this year) and anything we can do to help protect these guys are so worth it! Thanks for all your efforts!
So has Bhopu been introduced to Charlees? If so, what was his first reaction?
Bhopu hasn’t been introduced to Charlees yet. Other factors permitting, we anticipate letting Bhopu out of the boma within a month. We’ll definitely keep you posted on how it goes! Thanks so much for reading and your comment.
How many greater one-horned rhinos do you have at the Safari Park? Thanks for all the great work you do!!
Jonnie responds: Hi Amber, right now we have 7 greater one-horned rhinos at the Safari Park. Bhopu is our male, and the rest are females: Alta and her calf Charlees, Tanaya and her sister, Sundari, and Asha and her sister Kaya. Thanks for reading!