The amazing moment a rhino gives birth has been caught on behind-the-scenes cameras.

The amazing 50-second footage shows Kitani Chester Zoo’s 17 year old Eastern black rhino giving birth to a calf on Jan 31st, the keepers have named the female new born calf Fara.

The 15 year old father, Sammy has extremely rare and valuable genes and has never before sired a calf since moving from Japan in 2002 to join the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme for the critically endangered animals.

Curator of mammals at Chester Zoo, Tim Rowlands, said:

“Kitani’s delivery was textbook. We got a ‘maternity suite’ ready for her with deep sandy floors and beds of hay but ultimately she chose her own spot.

The footage has enabled us to witness this really special moment and both mum and youngster are doing really, really well.

Every birth is cause for great celebration but given that Eastern black rhino face a real threat of extinction our new arrival is even more significant. The calf is super important to the breeding programme in Europe and her arrival is another step towards sustaining a black rhino population which, in the wild, is being ravaged by poachers on an almost daily basis.”

To read more about the black rhino and pictures of the happy family click here

All images: www.chesterzoo.org/