Colchester Zoo’s baby white rhino finally has a name – and celebrated the occasion by rolling about in the mud.
Emily the rhino gave birth to the calf on the evening of January 4, and the team at the zoo made the announcement on January 9 after they could confirm it was happy and healthy.
Initially asking for African names for the new calf, the newest addition to the zoo has instead been named Lottie.
Many of the zoo's rhinos have African names, but keepers decided Lottie was showing the personalities of both her parents and combined their names instead.
Now she has been spotted taking her first steps into her outdoor enclosure, which quickly turned into excited trotting through muddy puddles and skidding on slippery hard court.
Her mother joined her outside and took the opportunity to wallow in the mud.
Lottie and Emily will gradually spend more time in the outside paddock before being introduced to the zoo's female rhinos and the other species who share the paddock.
Visitors will be able to catch a glimpse of the calf in the zoo from the outdoor viewing area, the balcony inside the Kingdom of the Wild building and the 'Rhino Cam' inside the building.
The birth of the new calf follows a baby boom in the zoo, with Amur leopards, Amur tigers and red pandas all being born in 2019.
White rhinos are listed as 'near threatened' on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List due to poaching and the ivory trade.
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