Rhin-no longer a baby, Oregon Zoo rhino calf celebrates first birthday

Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, December 4, 2024

It’s been one whole year of Tamu.

The smallest member of the Oregon Zoo rhino family is a year old today, Wednesday, Dec. 4, and tipping the scales at 1,040 pounds.

“He’s the only 1-year-old I know who weighs half a ton,” Kelly Gomez, who oversees the zoo’s Africa area, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled with the way he’s growing and progressing.”

While Tamu still has another couple of years before being in the same league as Jozi, his 2,400-pound mother, care staff are expecting big things from him.

“These rhinos represent a species that’s among the most imperiled on the planet,” Gomez said. “Hopefully, Tamu’s story can help inspire a new chapter in their conservation.”

Tamu and his parents, Jozi and King, belong to the eastern subspecies of black rhinoceros. The western subspecies of black rhino was declared extinct in 2011, according to the zoo, and poaching for rhino horn remains the biggest threat to all five rhino species.

Since 2013, the zoo has partnered with the International Rhino Foundation to safeguard rhinos through anti-poaching activities, intensive monitoring programs and work with local communities.

According to the zoo, thanks to those and other efforts, the population of this critically endangered species is on the rise.

Jozi moved to the Oregon Zoo in 2021 from the Milwaukee County Zoo, joining King, who came from Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo earlier that same year. Both moves were based on a recommendation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan for rhinos.

For a look back at Tamu’s first year, go to bit.ly/TamuBirthday.