Story By: Kathryn Quinn, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
These images show two-year-old rhino Shakti after he finally managed to impress the ‘mean girl’ rhinos at a European zoo who previously refused to be his pal.
He is the latest addition to Basel Zoo in the north-western Swiss city of the same name after it was moved from Plzen Zoo in the Czech Republic.
Anxious zookeepers were worried about whether the existing three rhinos would accept the cute new rhino into their enclosure.
However, 26-year-old Quetta and her two-year-old son Orys were both eager to get to know their new member while rhino male Jaffna watched little Shakti through the bars in his enclosure.
Rhinos are an endangered species with experts believing there are only around 3,200 left in the wild and a further 195 in zoos around the world.
They are also notoriously difficult to breed and in 2016, experts at Basel Zoo tried to integrate a new rhino which had arrived from a Dutch animal park.
After failed attempts to integrate the rhino with the group, it was eventually transferred to a zoo in France.
Basel zoo has reportedly managed to breed 35 rhinos since 1956 and has one of the most successful rhino breeding programs in the world.
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