Cuba Zookeepers Celebrate Birth of Rare Baby White Rhino

A newly-born white rhinoceros follows its mother (not pictured) at the National Zoo in Havana, Cuba, June 24, 2022. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
A newly-born white rhinoceros follows its mother (not pictured) at the National Zoo in Havana, Cuba, June 24, 2022. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
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Cuba Zookeepers Celebrate Birth of Rare Baby White Rhino

A newly-born white rhinoceros follows its mother (not pictured) at the National Zoo in Havana, Cuba, June 24, 2022. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
A newly-born white rhinoceros follows its mother (not pictured) at the National Zoo in Havana, Cuba, June 24, 2022. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

The zookeepers at Cuba's National Zoo are especially proud of Ale, a pudgy, gray-brown baby white rhinoceros born earlier this month on the outskirts of capital Havana.

For starters, he's cute. Baby rhinos look similar to adults, but have a stub in place of the horn and thus, are more docile in appearance.

But the white rhino is also a threatened species, and zoos the world across have been asked to reproduce them in captivity in the hope of creating a gene bank that will help preserve the species should it go extinct in the wild.

"It is a great privilege for us to be able to contribute to the rescue of a species as threatened as the white rhinoceros," said Alexander Arango, a Cuban zoo specialist in exotic wildlife, as he watched the newborn graze on a patch of grass beside his mother, Katherine.

Cuba, says Arango, now has the second largest population of white rhinos of any zoo in Latin America - a total of 8 – thanks to Ale and the birth of his sister, Mel, in 2019. Before that, it had been nearly two decades since the previous birth.

In a Caribbean island nation with limited resources and far from Africa, the increasing success in reproduction is a point of pride, the zookeepers told Reuters.

White rhinos, among the largest land mammals, have suffered in recent years as poaching has increased across their home range, primarily across southern Africa. That has put more pressure on zoos to maintain the species, the zookeepers said.

Cuba's National Zoo is a favorite attraction for Cubans, with 1,473 specimens of more than 120 species, including large animals such as elephants, rhinos and giraffes.



Greece to Build Escape Port on Santorini as Quakes Continue

FILE PHOTO: People board a ferry to Piraeus, during an increased seismic activity on the island of Santorini, Greece, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People board a ferry to Piraeus, during an increased seismic activity on the island of Santorini, Greece, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo
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Greece to Build Escape Port on Santorini as Quakes Continue

FILE PHOTO: People board a ferry to Piraeus, during an increased seismic activity on the island of Santorini, Greece, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People board a ferry to Piraeus, during an increased seismic activity on the island of Santorini, Greece, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo

Greece will soon set up an evacuation port on the island of Santorini to facilitate the safe escape of people in case a bigger quake hits the popular tourist destination, a Greek minister said on Monday.
Santorini, a volcanic island in the Aegean Sea, has been shaken by tens of thousands of mild quakes since late January, forcing thousands of people to flee, and authorities to ban construction activity, and shut schools and nearby islands.
No major damage has been reported but scientists have said the seismic activity was unprecedented even in a quake-prone country like Greece and have not ruled out bigger tremors.
They have identified the main ferry port at the foot of a precipitous slope and other sites across Santorini as weak links, although they have not said they cannot be used in an emergency situation, Reuters reported.
Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said Greece will build an evacuation port for the safe docking of passenger ferries until a new port infrastructure is in place.
"Along with the new port in Santorini which is being prepared, there was a decision for setting up an escape port on the part of the island where passenger ferries would be able to dock in an emergency," he said in an interview with Greek ANT1 television.
Although the tremors lessened over the weekend, local authorities extended emergency measures for a third week on Sunday and reiterated calls for people to stay away from coastal areas and steep hillsides prone to landslides.
"This story is not over," Costas Papazachos, a seismology professor, and a spokesperson for the Santorini quakes told public broadcaster ERT.
"Both authorities and habitants should get used to a rather unpleasant situation for some time, it could be another two, three months."
Santorini took its current shape following one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history, around 1600 BC.
Seismologists have said the latest seismic activity, the result of moving tectonic plates and magma, has pushed subsurface layers of the island upwards.