LOS ANGELES — The
Los Angeles Zoo has a new resident, an extremely rare Sumatran
rhinoceros named Andalas.
The 21 month-old rhino, first of his
species born in a zoo since 1889, arrived via cargo plane Friday
from his previous home at the
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, according to the Los Angeles
Zoo.
Andalas, which is the former name of
the Indonesian island of Sumatra, will go on public display following
a state-mandated, 30-day
quarantine
period, said the zoo's Lora LaMarca.
The rhino weighs slightly more
than 1,100 pounds and is expected to reach about 1,800 pounds,
said LaMarca.
The Los Angeles Zoo is
one of three in the country, the others are Cincinnati and the
Bronx, to house a Sumatran rhino, the smallest
and hairiest of the five rhino species and the most endangered.
Authorities
say there are 13 such rhinos in zoos and about 300 left in the
wild.
The animals have a reddish-brown coat
covered sparsely with long hair. They are solitary animals and
only join each other
for breeding.
"
At his age, Andalas would be on his own in the wild," according
to the zoo. "The move was ... necessary because his mother,
Emi, is pregnant again and space is needed for her second calf."
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