Joona: Our Joy and Treasure

Tensing’s labor started on a Thursday afternoon with a lot of pacing, restlessness, and vocalizations – several of us stayed that night, but you still were not ready to come out. Labor continued into Friday afternoon when we saw more promising signs, so the entire rhino team settled in for a very long night.  We brought cots, pillows and LOTS of food so that we would be comfortable in the long wait. We all wanted to be there for your arrival! Throughout Tensing’s labor, we were in contact with several of our colleagues from other institutions that had experience with greater one-horned births so we could compare notes and progress.

At 10:09 pm on February 21st, a portion of the birth sac came out and erupted, a critical point in the birth process. Once the birth sac has been ruptured, the calf needs to arrive within the next hour. Our clock was ticking, but Tensing was so exhausted from the long labor that she literally just laid backdown to rest – no more signs of labor. My heart landed in my stomach and filled with unease. Your keepers, veterinary staff, and managers discussed any and all options, but in the end, we had to let Tensing’s body decide all of our fates. It was 11:30 and one and a half hours had now passed. Our hopes waned with each passing minute, and the sense of loss started to overwhelm us. We thought you were gone.

We waited in silence, but that soon turned into embraces filled with tears and sobs, as the realization that our dream was turning into our worst nightmare. I have been lucky enough to experience the joy of several baby rhinos, so to see the look on my teammates’ faces was the most devastating thing for me.   Our team had been up for the last 48 hours, so we decided that our manager and a veterinarian would stay to monitor Tensing’s delivery of what we feared would be a stillborn calf.

Around midnight, we all got into our cars and went home filled with exhaustion and sorrow. I sobbed, yelled and screamed the entire way home. When I got home, I just fell into bed, willing the day to be over. At 1:15 am, my cell phone rang, and in my drowsy haze, I barely muttered a hello before I heard, “We have a LIVE calf on the ground!” I leapt out of bed screaming with joy, asking how this was even possible. My manager was on the other end of the phone laughing and crying, “I don’t know, but it’s a miracle!” Tensing has always done things on what we like to refer to as Tensing Time. That is exactly what she did with you, Joona.  So why are you a miracle?  Because you are the ONLY known greater one-horned calf to have been born alive after three hours from the birth sac being ruptured.