In an epic search for a mate, Emma, a five-year-old white rhinoceros has travelled from Taiwan to Japan.
Emma is originally from Leofoo Safari Park in Taiwan and was selected from a group of 23 rhinos to be sent to Japan, thanks to her “mild personality”, with staff saying she “rarely got into fights”. She arrived on Tuesday at Japan’s Tobu Zoo after travelling around 16 hours and 10-year-old rhinoceros Moran is her first suitor. Her stay there is part of an attempt to increase the number of captive-bred white rhinos in Asia, as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) classifies the white rhino is as Near Threatened, with only around 18,000 left in the wild according the group.
Taiwan prepares white rhino ‘Emma’ to find mate in Japan. #AFP
— AFP Photo (@AFPphoto) March 3, 2021
📸 Sam Yeh https://t.co/fmSg2sYGBt pic.twitter.com/eL5RDQs8OJ
Originally Emma was supposed to travel in March, however just as it was for millions of people worldwide the coronavirus delayed the travel. Despite this, the delay was used to prepare her for the move, with keepers teaching her the Japanese words for “come” and “no”. “After some delays due to the coronavirus, Emma, a southern white rhino, arrived at our zoo on the evening of 8th June,” the Saitama Tobu zoo said in a statement. “We slowly opened the shipping container which was placed in front of her sleeping room. Emma, without showing any signs of shyness, went straight into the sleeping room,” it added. Staff at the Leofoo Safari Park said Emma’s small size also made her easier to ship overseas.
Zoo breeding companies have been instrumental in increasing the number of southern white rhino herds, however unfortunately their northern cousins have not been as lucky. Only two of them remain and both are female, meaning the species will likely be completely extinct soon, unless scientists come up with a plan to save them. Poaching is the main threat to all rhino species, as scammers market the keratin horns (the same material that hair and fingernails are made of) as an aphrodisiac or cancer cure, although this is not scientifically proven.
