LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla., July 20, 2011 – Nande, a 12-year-old female white rhino born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, gave birth June 4 to a healthy female calf at the Ziwa Sanctuary in Uganda. The baby, named Malaika (“angel” in Swahili), is the first female white rhino born in Uganda in more than 30 years.

Animal care experts from the Rhino Fund Uganda team have been closely monitoring Nande and Malaika as they bond. Nande is a second-time mother. She gave birth to her first baby, a male calf, in 2009.

Nande is one of two white rhinos born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom that traveled to Africa in 2006 as part of the first-ever reintroduction of white rhinos from the United States to Uganda. She was accompanied by Hasani, a male, also born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and joined four other white rhinos at the Ziwa Sanctuary to help re-establish a white rhino population that has been extinct in Uganda since 1982 as a casualty of civil unrest in the region. Nande was born in 1999, and Hasani was born in 2001. Guests can see both white and black rhinos on the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction.

Disney’s commitment to conservation and rhinos goes beyond this first-ever rhino transfer. The Walt Disney Company Foundation and the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund have supported more than $940,000 in rhino protection and research projects in partnership with non-profit organizations throughout the world.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). With its more than 200 accredited members, AZA is a leader in global wildlife conservation and a link to helping animals in their native habitats.