A world-first: birth of a white rhino after artificial insemination with frozen sperm
The rhino baby, a male, was born at 4:57am in the Budapest Zoo on the 22nd of October 2008. In June 2007, scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin artificially inseminated his mother, the rhino cow Lulu, with frozen bull semen. The rhino baby weighed 45 kilos. It is in good health and was accepted by his mom. The birth is “an important success for species conservation and preservation of biodiversity”, says Dr. Robert Hermes, one of the IZW-scientists performing the insemination.
The real dad was a White rhino from the United Kingdom named Simba. The remarkable aspect is that the sperm used was three years old that had been preserved at -196 °C in liquid nitrogen. Scientists estimate there are at most four White rhinos left in the wild and eight being kept in zoos.
7 Puget Sound killer whales feared dead
Seven orcas have disappeared from Washington’s Puget Sound, and experts fear they have died, victims of a declining population of Chinook salmon.
The orcas, or killer whales, have not been seen in almost a year, The Seattle Times reported Saturday. They included the oldest and youngest animals in the Puget Sound population, as well as two females in their reproductive prime.
The death of this pod brings the total population of Orcas in the area down to 83.
Florida considers land protection through tax break
Proponents believe it could prove especially helpful in places like South Miami-Dade, where suburban sprawl drives up land values — and pressure to subdivide — on remaining rural lands. The pitch is that owners now spending money to run small farms or nurseries mainly to claim agriculture tax breaks could profit by letting land revert to wetland.
tangledwing 