Zuri is almost 1!

Zuri, Zoo Atlanta’s white rhinoceros calf, turns 1 year old this Christmas Eve! In our August 21 Keeper Stories Blog, we described many of her first milestones – getting to know all of the areas in our rhino care complex, growing large enough for us to remove most of the “babyproofing” around the indoor area, and beginning to meet our other adult female rhino, Dakari.

Zuri still lives full-time with her mom, Kiazi, but they spend most of their days with Dakari, too. Zuri LOVES Dakari! For the first couple of months they were together, Zuri used Dakari as a playset, and was constantly trying to climb on her back whenever Dakari laid down. She’s incredibly lucky that her “aunt” was so patient and gentle! Now that she’s too big for climbing, Zuri follows Dakari into the wallow for mud baths, eats next to her, takes naps with her, and solicits her for playful sparring matches. She still spends plenty of time with her mom, but sometimes I wonder if Kiazi has been glad to have a little break from her duties! Zuri has also met her dad, Mumbles, through gates, and sees him every day, but they have not yet shared space.

Zuri now weighs over 1,000 pounds, with plenty of room to grow! Kiazi is almost 4,000 pounds. Zuri is starting to learn her first trained behaviors, like “target” (pressing her nose to our palm) and to open her mouth on cue, which helps us with feeding and would eventually be used to train her for voluntary oral inspections and mouth washes. Zuri is a very social rhino, so we have worked to get her used to having different parts of her body manipulated, like her ears, which would be a future blood draw area, her feet for future foot care, and her tail, just in case we need to do some work back there someday.

Young rhinos stay with their mothers for a long while, so we are looking forward to continuing to watch her grow and learn in 2025!

Michelle E.
Senior Keeper, Mammals