Queenie is the newest addition to the Rhino family at Cotswold Wildlife Park & Gardens. She is the ninth White Rhino calf to be born at the Burford collection and is Monty and Nancy's fifth breeding success together. Visitors can see the newborn daily from 10 am in the solar-powered Rhino House or the large Rhino paddock overlooking the Manor House.
This year marks Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee year. An apt name was chosen for the new calf to celebrate this unprecedented anniversary. Reggie Heyworth, Managing Director of Cotswold Wildlife Park, explains: "We feel very lucky to have another baby female Rhino, which is our fifth female baby in a row. All the Rhinos here are named after very special people, and I think everyone agrees that 2022 will always be special because of Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee. I thought it might be a bit presumptuous to call our new baby 'Elizabeth', so I have christened her 'Queenie' instead. I think it is a perfect name for a young lady Rhino!"
The Queen's Grandson, Prince William, is the Royal Patron of UK-based conservation charity Tusk Trust (which Cotswold Wildlife Park supports and works closely with to protect Africa's many threatened species). Reggie Heyworth is a Tusk Trust Ambassador and ran the 2021 London Marathon to aid the charity. For more information about Tusk Trust, please visit www.tusk.org.
Award-winning photographer Rory Carnegie captured stunning images of Queenie on camera just after she was born. Keepers also filmed the young calf tentatively taking her first steps just after her mother, Nancy, gave birth.
Queenie isn't the only royal-related birth at the Park. Louis, our new male Bactrian Camel, has just become a first-time father. He was named after Prince Louis of Cambridge as they were both born on the same day. His as-yet-unnamed calves are the first Camels born at the Park since 2018. The wild Bactrian Camel (Camelus ferus) is critically endangered by the IUCN and is thought to be one of the rarest large mammals on earth.
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