Daytime spatial relationships in a family group of black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis at the Hiroshima City Asa Zoological Park, Japan

Although black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis are mostly solitary in the wild, the Hiroshima City Asa Zoological Park (Asa Zoo) has kept a family group together during the daytime, with good reproductive performance over five decades. Management procedures at the zoo include temporary single housing of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zoo biology 2024-07, Vol.43 (4), p.364-370
Main Authors: Nakamichi, Masayuki, Saito, Miho, Kaigaishi, Yu, Onishi, Kenji
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Daytime
Diceros bicornis
Females
follower‐type
Males
mother−calf relationship
mother−older offspring relationships
Multidimensional scaling
multidimensional scaling (MDS)
Offspring
Proximity
Reproduction
Zoo animals
Zoological gardens
Zoos
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Summary:Although black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis are mostly solitary in the wild, the Hiroshima City Asa Zoological Park (Asa Zoo) has kept a family group together during the daytime, with good reproductive performance over five decades. Management procedures at the zoo include temporary single housing of the mother before and after giving birth, which facilitates maintenance of a compatible family group. We recorded intra‐group spatial relationships for 4 years and 4 months, during which time an adult female reared two consecutive calves. During daytime she remained in an enclosure with her new calf, one or two older offspring, and an adult male, the sire of all her offspring. Proximity (within two adult body‐lengths) scores between the mother and her two calves were especially high during the first year after birth, and only slightly lower for her older offspring. The adult male had the lowest proximity scores. The spatial relationships were visualized by applying multidimensional scaling (MDS) to the proximity scores. Mother and calves were plotted close to each other, with older offspring slightly farther apart on the two‐dimensional MDS representation; the adult male was more distant from the other group members. These findings indicate clear follower‐type characteristics in the mother−calf pair and also older immature offspring, albeit to a lesser degree. Although black rhinoceros are generally solitary in the wild, our results duplicate observations of some wild black rhinoceros groups containing an adult female, her calf, and an older immature, with adult males being largely solitary. The Hiroshima City Asa Zoological Park has kept a family group of black rhinoceros together in an enclosure during the daytime, with good reproductive performance over five decades. Proximity values between the mother and her two consecutive calves were highest during the lactation period, while those between the mother and the adult male were lowest. These findings indicate that female rhinoceros with a calf can tolerate living together not only with their immature offspring of different ages but also with the adult male who sired the offspring, at least in the enclosure during daytime.
ISSN:0733-3188
1098-2361
1098-2361
DOI:10.1002/zoo.21830