Rare female white rhino born in Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- For the first time in 20 years, a safari facility in Israel is home to a female white rhino -- an exceedingly rare specimen. Safari officials found the female calf in her mother's enclosure Tuesday morning.

White rhinos are an endangered species in Africa, and their numbers continue shrink under threat from poachers and habitat loss. For this reason, male rhinos at the Ramat Gan Safari, outside of Tel Aviv, are usually sent to other zoos to breed and prolong the species lineage. Not so, for females.

"It's been 20 years since a female rhinoceros was born here," Rami Tam, head of the park's African section, said in a statement earlier this week. "The meaning of a female birth is that the calf will be able to stay here at the safari with us even after she reaches maturity, and that is a big source of happiness."

The white rhino calf and her mother will be reunited with the other rhinos in the next few days.