29-Jun-09 1:00 PM CST

First Baby Ugandan Rhino in Decades Raises Hopes for Future

Kampala - The first baby rhino to be born in Uganda for decades has raised hopes for the future of an animal that was wiped out during the bloody regime of former dictator Idi Amin, officials said Monday. A 10-year-old female Rhino called "Nandi" - one of four donated to Uganda by the Disney Animal Kingdom - gave birth last week, the state-run New Vision newspaper quoted officials as saying.

"The calf is three days old, but the mother is too protective," Angie Genade, the executive director of Rhino Fund Uganda, said. "So, it is difficult to get close to them to establish its gender."

Rhinos were eliminated from the East African country soon after Amin assumed power in a 1971 military coup.

The dictator and his henchmen had no respect for wildlife. Military officers and poachers rampaged through the national parks, killing the animals with impunity.

The government and several conservation groups have begun a program of restocking the rhino population.

Some eight animals, imported from the United States and neighbouring Kenya, are kept at a breeding sanctuary in central Uganda.

South Africa's Sun Park has donated an additional 12 rhinos to help bolster the population in Uganda. Those animals are expected in the country late this year, government officials said.

Ecologists from the state-run Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) believe that rhino numbers are now likely to recover.

"Definitely we expect the numbers to increase," UWA operations director Sam Mwandha told the German Press Agency dpa. "First, those we have have started giving birth ... and we have a program of importing them."

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