ALTO, Michigan — Friday was a busy day at Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park in southeastern Kent County. The drop in humidity helped. But Josh Baker would like to think that the real reason people came out had something to do with a reveal park staff has been waiting a long time for.
"Our new additions are these Southern White Rhinos here," said Baker, gesturing toward two 1,600 pound beasts behind him.
"They're two young females between the ages of 2.5 to three years old. They are sisters. We're very excited to get them. They were imported right out of South Africa, right to us. We're hoping to eventually propagate and preserve the species."
Baker, who serves as park manager at Boulder Ridge, says white rhinos are poached at a rate of nearly one per day. The World Wildlife Fund reports that decades of rampant poaching for rhino horn is the reason the white rhinos are of "near threatened" status.
Baker says the possibility of helping rhinos survive as a species is a big reason they're excited to receive the two animals. It was lengthy process to acquire them.
"We've been trying for two years now, We've built this state of the art facility two years ago and then COVID hit and that kind of was a big waiting period and finally we were able to get them which is very exciting," he said.
The new north wing of the park is centered around the rhinos and also includes three new small-clawed otters, a bat cave, and a new playground. The facility took a year to build.
When the white rhinos are fully grown, they'll be around 4,000 pounds. They do not yet have names.
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