Bundle of Joy

On Tuesday, the 94th southern white rhino was born at the San Diego Safari Park.  Her name is Kianga and she is just too cute!

Here are some quick facts about the southern white rhino:

● White rhinos are the largest of the five sub-species of rhino.
● The southern white rhino is a genetically distinct sub-species from the northern white rhino.
● Southern white rhinos are the most abundant of the rhino sub-species with about 17,000 left in the wild (IUCN 2008).
● The population of southern white rhinos was only about 100 individuals in the late 1890's.  Management and conservation helped to take the population from Endangered to Near Threatened.
● The San Diego Wild Animal Park started breeding southern white rhinos in captivity in 1972.

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​Lab-mate David and I are currently in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada at the Wildlife Society Conference.  Today was day one of a 2-day Bayesian Inference workshop and the official start of the 4-day conference is Sunday!  We are so excited to learn all about what's going on in the wildlife community as well as show them the research we have been working on.  Both David and I will be presenting posters of our ongoing research on Monday.  We've also already been having fun exploring the city.  It's a nice change being somewhere cold! 
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