Two Indian rhinos have come to the Oklahoma City Zoo.
The zoo announced the arrival of Shanti and Arun on Twitter. Shanti is 32 years old and Arun is 22 years old. Both came from the zoo in Fort Worth. They are now part of the habitat themed around Asia.
According to the zoo's lead pachyderm caretaker Daniel Custer, the rhinos moved to Oklahoma City because the zoo in Fort Worth is renovating its Asia exhibits. They join 12-year-old Indian rhino Niki who has been in Oklahoma City since 2009. She came from the Bronx Zoo. Patrons of the zoo can see the three rhinos in the Asian habitat.
Niki looks different from the two new rhinos since the native soil has stained her skin red while Shanti and Arun retain a grey and white hue. In captivity, Indian rhinos live to be 40 years old. In the wild, it ranges from 30 to 40 years. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature labels the species as vulnerable, meaning it is coming close to danger of extinction.
There are nine categories in the Red List of Threatened Species by the IUCN. There are categories for insufficient evidence and species that have not been evaluated and then a scale from not threatened to completely extinct. Wild Indian rhinos have gone from 32 to 3,600 in the last century but there is still more needed to conserve the species.
Poster printing services can advertise new additions like the rhinos to the zoo in public areas such as the gift shop and in the parking lot.