A 10-day old baby rhino learning to roll in a mud puddle, courtesy of a lesson from a frighteningly big — and extremely muddy — mother, just might be the most adorable video you watch all week. The new video was released by Lion Country Safari of West Palm Beach, Florida where baby “Anna” was born on April 6.
Less than two weeks old in the mud-splashing video, the young rhino already weighed 155 pounds. Yet she looks scarily small next to her mother, especially when mom herself starts wallowing around in the mud to show her what to do.
The second video shows the new mother Bloom nursing little Anna when she was only four days old, which really makes the adult look gargantuan. I have to admit that when mom turned around to face the camera, I felt some concern for the unknown videographer.
You couldn’t blame her if she got a little grouchy, since Lion Country reports that she had to carry the growing baby for 16 months before she delivered baby Anna.
By the way, Bloom was being a caring mother, not just a playful friend, when she taught her baby how to roll in the mud. Even in the wild, rhinos make a point of seeking out mud wallows to cover their skin in a natural coating that serves both as an insect repellent and a primitive sunscreen.
Anna and Bloom are the southern white rhinoceros species, and Lion Country says that over 20,000 of that species remain. However, other rhino species are endangered or critically endangered in the wild because of the lucrative trade in powdered rhino horn . The illegal trade in the substance has become so financially rewarding that thieves will steal horns from museums and taxidermy specimens, in addition to carrying out bold poaching campaigns in South Africa’s national parks.
Here are the mother and daughter when the little one is only ten days old:
And here the tiny baby rhino is only four days old:
[baby rhino photo courtesy Valentina Storti and Wikipedia Commons]