Toronto Zoo welcomes adorable white rhino calf with “very hairy ears”

Christmas arrived earlier at the Toronto Zoo, which welcomed a white rhino calf.

Zohari gave birth to the male calf – her first baby – at 10:45 p.m on Christmas Eve to the delight of zookeepers.

“Both mom and baby are doing very well, with reports that mom is very tired but a very calm and protective first-time mom,” the zoo said in announcing the birth today.

The baby rhinoceros tips the scales at 62.3 kilograms, which is rather big, officials said. He’s also strong and has been eating more than would normally be expected.

“And he apparently has very hairy ears,” the zoo added.

So far, 7-year-old Zohari is a pretty chill first-time mother. No word yet if the calf’s father, a 10-year-old white rhino named Tom, has met the newborn.

A white rhino hasn’t been born at the zoo since 1990. And this is only the fifth in the zoo’s history.

The World Conservation Union lists the species as near threatened with perhaps only 19,000 to 21,000 left in the wild.

This video of the calf nursing was taken on Christmas day.

For now, the mother and baby are bonding and not yet on view to the public.

Photos Toronto Zoo/Twitter

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