Captive breeding

Who’s a big boy then? – Rocco the rhino spotted at last!

Posted on by Platypus Man

I don’t normally post to my blog on Mondays, but as today (22 September) is World Rhino Day I thought I’d bring forward my deadline to share an update on Yorkshire Wildlife Park’s “teenage” superstar…

When a baby Eastern Black Rhinoceros was born at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in January 2024, the management knew they were onto a winner. Great news for species conservation, obviously, but great news too for visitor numbers. I mean, who doesn’t love a baby rhino? The marketing department went into overdrive, and Rocco the Rhino – named after a public vote – quickly became the Park’s pin-up superstar. The only problem was that, for us at least, Rocco proved to be disappointingly elusive.

Now nearly 20 months old, Rocco clearly enjoys his food!

Mrs P and I visited the Park several times during the 18 months after the birth, and top of our wish list was always a sighting of Rocco, who was – to judge from the publicity photos – the epitome of armoured cuteness. But we were always disappointed. Instead of roaming their enormous paddock. Rocco and his mum and dad were holed up in their indoor quarters and therefore visible to visitors only via a grainy CCTV system. When we asked about the best time to see him, we were told that the doors to the rhinos’ outside world opened at 11:30am, but it was up to Rocco and his parents to decide whether or not they wanted to come out.

The marketing department went into overdrive, and Rocco the Rhino – named after a public vote – quickly became the Park’s pin-up superstar

We were also advised that sometimes the doors would remain closed beyond the 11:30am deadline to give Rocco’s mum Najuma a much needed rest. Rocco, we were told, was an energetic and demanding calf who was causing his poor mother a good deal of stress, and the keepers felt it was important to consider her welfare as well as the needs of the infant rhino. Fair enough, I suppose, but it was unfortunate that Rocco was never out and about when we were visiting the Park.

This video, made by staff at Yorkshire Wildlife Park at the end of March 2024, provides the view of Rocco that we sadly never got to enjoy!

But at last, just a couple of weeks ago, we finally caught up with Rocco in person. At last! The only downside of this encounter was that Rocco is no longer the cute little calf we had been longing to see. He’s now around 20 months old, and his build and bulk more closely resemble that of his poor old mum. To put it into human terms, I suppose he’s now a sturdy teenager. Impressive? Yes, definitely. Cute? No, sadly those days are gone for good.

Rocco trailing close behind his long-suffering mum Najuma

Putting aside our disappointment at missing out on his cute phase, Rocco’s birth gives cause for celebration. Najuma and Rocco’s dad Makibo came to Yorkshire Wildlife Park in 2018 as part of an international breeding programme to save the species, which is classed as critically endangered. Here’s what the Park’s website has to say about its plight:

Eastern Black Rhinos are the rarest of the 3-remaining subspecies. Between 1970 and 1992, their population declined by 96% to 2300 from a devastating period of poaching for their horns…Thanks to global conservation efforts, Black Rhino numbers have steadily risen to around 6000 individuals. The European Breeding Programme currently holds around 100 individuals in various wildlife parks and zoos.

Source: Yorkshire Wildlife Park website, retrieved on 8 September 2025

Rocco follows Najuma everywhere!

It’s good to know that ethically responsible organisations like Yorkshire Wildlife Park are doing their bit to support the conservation of this wonderful species. Finally catching up with Rocco, after so many missed opportunities, was a big thrill. Hopefully before too long he’ll have a brother or sister, and if he does we will visit the Park regularly in the hope of spotting the new arrival before it grows too big to be cute!

No longer a calf, Rocco’s growing up fast!

Of course, there are many other species – including several conservation priorities – living at the Park. The following photos offer a glimpse of some that we encountered on our recent visit. Maybe I’ll write at length about these species in future posts to this blog?

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Monkey business at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Posted on by Platypus Man

Yorkshire Wildlife Park opened in 2009 on the site of a former riding school and petting zoo, and has grown steadily ever since. We aim to visit several times each year, to check up on old friends and to look out for new kids on the block. And I’m delighted to report that thanks to a couple of old friends getting it together there is indeed a new kid on the block, in the form of Carlos, a beautiful young Venezuelan Red Howler Monkey.

Carlos was born on 29 April 2023. He was exactly 5 months old when this photo was taken.

This species of howler monkey is native to the western Amazon basin, in parts of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil, where they live in the tree canopy. Their diet consists largely of leaves, supplemented with a mixture of nuts, fruits, seeds, flowers and small animals. Howlers are named for the ear-splitting guttural roar that males produce to mark their territory and warn off potential intruders.

Venezuelan Red Howlers can live up to 20 years in the wild, but have become increasingly rare due to hunting and habitat destruction. Collections in zoos and conservation centres are therefore an important insurance policy helping to support the long-term future of the species. Yorkshire Wildlife Park is home to England’s only Venezuelan Red Howlers, and the good news is that the adult monkeys who live there have been doing their bit to boost numbers.

Carlos was born at the end of April 2023, the second child of mum Tila and dad Geronimo. Their first offspring was born in October 2021, and Yorkshire Wildlife Park was understandably proud that this ground-breaking birth of a Venezuelan Red Howler Monkey had taken place on their turf. Within a few days the Park was sharing Tila and Geronimo’s news with the world, telling anyone who cared to listen that their son was to be named Pablo.

Interestingly, Pablo is now called Pabla and is referred to as Carlos’s big sister. Oops! Media releases in the days following the birth of baby Carlos were quick to point out that “It’s still too early to tell the sex of the baby”, implying that keepers may have been a bit too eager to do just that when the first youngster was born. It wasn’t until nearly three months after his birth that Carlos’s gender and name were revealed on Facebook, accompanied by a piece of video footage clearly showing him to be a very well endowed young man – no mistakes this time!

The top left and middle left photos were taken on 6 July 2023, when Carlos was just 68 days old! He was almost 12 months old when he was pictured hanging upside down (top right). In the remaining two photos he is 5 months old.

The name Carlos was apparently chosen to reflect the monkey’s Hispanic heritage, while at the same time marking the fact he was born just a few days before the UK’s new king was crowned. But whether King Charles III is amused to have a red-haired, prehensile-tailed, ballsy baby monkey named after him must forever remain a mystery.

Mrs P and I first encountered Carlos in early July 2023, just a few days before his gender and name were announced to the world. Although he clearly wanted to remain close to his mum most of the time, he was already demonstrating an adventurous spirit when he set off to explore the trees growing in his enclosure. His agility was plain to see, as was his burgeoning manhood – check it out by following the link to my short video on YouTube.

When we visited Yorkshire Wildlife Park again two weeks ago Carlos had clearly grown in both size and confidence. As my video shows, he strutted arrogantly about the place like a teenager of our own species, fearlessly challenging himself to scuttle along – and dangle precariously from – ropes that are strung across the Red Howlers’ enclosure. What a great guy he’s become.

Watching Carlos’s performance, as well as the antics of his parents and sister, is a real joy. I wonder what new monkey business they’ll be up to when we next pay them a visit?

Yorkshire Wildlife Park: Saving the Warty Pig

Posted on by Platypus Man

Yorkshire Wildlife Park has plenty of iconic critters that are certain to impress visitors. The black rhinos, polar bears and Amur tigers, for example, are guaranteed to provoke appreciative oohs and ahs from delighted punters. But there’s other stuff too, animals that are pretty much unknown to all but the most dedicated wildlife geeks, animals that are maybe a bit more difficult to love. Warty Pigs, for example. I mean, whoever heard of a Warty Pig? And who cares?

I care! It’s true that Visayan Warty Pigs aren’t obviously cute or charismatic, but so what? All living things are intrinsically valuable, worthy of our respect and protection regardless of their looks or lifestyle. And there’s a reason why we’ve never heard of them: they’re all but extinct in the wild, and hail from the Philippines, a little known and unglamorous part of the globe that few of my fellow citizens could locate on a world atlas even if they’ve heard of the place at all.

The Visayan Warty Pig is classified as “critically endangered.” It is endemic to six of the Visayas Islands in the central Philippines, but is believed to be extinct on four of these. Their natural habitat is the rainforest, but between 95% to 98% of it has been lost to commercial forestry and slash-and-burn farming. With their natural food sources severely depleted, the pigs have resorted to raiding cultivated land, and are consequently persecuted as agricultural pests. They are also hunted for bushmeat.

There seems little doubt that, without a major conservation effort and captive breeding, the Visayan Warty Pig is doomed to extinction. Fortunately, there are many programmes, both in the Philippines and in zoos across the world, that are dedicated to saving the species.

And here’s where Yorkshire Wildlife Park is doing its bit. We’ve visited YWP several times over the last couple of years, and have been pleased to see a decent-sized group of adult females and youngsters going about their business in the ample, wooded Warty Pig enclosure. They are feisty, entertaining animals and you can enjoy some of their antics by clicking on the link below to my short video on YouTube.

The adult male – which boasts impressive facial warts, as well as a stiff, spiky crest of hair – lives next door to the main family group, replicating behaviour in the wild where males live apart from the females most of the time.

The male plainly knows his stuff, and his managed encounters with the females have produced multiple, humbug-striped piglets. My brief research on the internet confirms that other zoos are having similar breeding success, suggesting that Visayan Warty Pigs can thrive in captivity. Hopefully, one day, some of their descendants can be reintroduced to the wild, where they rightly belong.