By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Emi the Sumatran rhino (left) and her calf, Andalas, in August 2002. (Enquirer file photo) | ZOOM |

Emi, the female Sumatran rhino at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, is carrying a few extra pounds in her belly these days - and the weight of her species' survival on her back.

Emi was the first Sumatran rhino in 112 years to give birth to a calf in captivity when she delivered 72-pound Andalas on Sept. 13, 2001.

Now Emi is 70 days into her second pregnancy at the zoo. Sumatran rhinos have a gestation period of 475 days. Emi and her partner, Ipuh, are the only pair of breeding Sumatran rhinos in the United States.

With only about 300 Sumatran rhinos left, they are the most endangered of the five rhino species and one of the most endangered mammals on Earth.

Tom Foose, program director for the International Rhino Foundation, said the success of the breeding program at the zoo gives hope.

"Getting the rhinos to reproduce in captivity has proven just as challenging as conservation in the wild," Foose said. "Neither program has been easy or enormously successful. Both are going to be necessary if the species is going to survive."

Emi lost five pregnancies in the first 90 days of gestation before carrying her first full-term calf. So far, the fetus in 12-year-old Emi has a heartbeat and is moving.

"We're still in the scary zone," said Terri Roth, director of the zoo's Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife. "But we're cautiously optimistic."

Andalas is healthy, weighing more than 1,100 pounds. He will be moved to the Los Angeles Zoo on Friday to make room for his sibling. Emi came to Cincinnati from the LA Zoo in 1995, to breed with Ipuh. Both animals are on loan from the Indonesian government.

It's estimated that 70 percent of the Sumatran rhino population has been lost since 1985, mainly to poaching and loss of its tropical habitat in Malaysia and Indonesia.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com