How Marwell Zoo’s expert team cared for Amali the rhino calf in intensive care

Amali the Southern white rhino calf was born to mum Zahra on 15 March 2026, and if you’ve visited Marwell since the spring, you may have spotted the pair, as well as the rest of our rhino herd. But what you may not know is that for over eight weeks, our Hoofstock and Veterinary teams provided intensive care to Amali after she became seriously ill with a bacterial infection.

From finding ways to keep her hydrated and administer medication, to developing a bespoke approach to rebuilding the beneficial bacteria in her digestive system, her care required expertise, collaboration and plenty of problem-solving.

Amali has now reached an important milestone in her recovery, although our teams continue to monitor her closely.

So, what does providing intensive care for a young rhino actually involve?

Spotting the first signs

As with all the animals in our care, our Hoofstock team spends time observing Amali every day, building a detailed understanding of everything from how much she eats, to how she behaves and interacts with her environment.

Towards the end of May, during the first spell of particularly hot weather, those daily observations became especially important.

The team noticed changes in Amali. She developed very loose faeces and, as she became increasingly uncomfortable, her keepers knew something wasn’t right.

At first, there were several possible explanations. Young animals are still developing their ability to regulate their body temperature, so the team considered whether the warmer weather could be contributing to how she was feeling.

When you work with animals every day, even subtle changes can provide important information about their health and welfare. The Hoofstock team’s observations meant our Veterinary team could begin investigating quickly.

Finding the cause

Working out exactly what was wrong wasn’t immediate. With adapting to the hot weather ruled out as a possible cause, the team needed samples to help identify what was causing Amali’s illness, but keeper’s determined Amali and Zahra should remain together to reduce any stress for both mum and calf. However, this meant collecting samples from a young rhino under the watchful eye of mum, wasn’t straightforward, the team needed to react quickly and carefully.

At the same time, Amali was losing fluid, making hydration increasingly important. Even encouraging her to drink required some creative thinking. The team tried creating puddles with a hose, although Amali was initially much more interested in playing in them than drinking from them.

Eventually, a trough was secured where Amali could reach it and filled with water and electrolytes.

As Amali’s condition continued to cause concern, our Veterinary team also contacted experts at Liphook Equine Hospital.

Rhinos might not look much like horses, but there are similarities in the way their bodies work. The Liphook team regularly works with young foals, meaning their experience could provide another valuable perspective when developing Amali’s treatment plan.

Jamie Prutton, Clinical Director at Liphook Equine Hospital, said: “I do quite a lot of neonatal foal work at Liphook Equine Hospital, so I’m very used to working with young animals and the problems that they can face. Although not all of it is directly translatable, some of those ideas could be brought to Amali’s care.”

Initially, the team was able to give some of Amali’s medication orally, but as she began to recognise the taste, she became more reluctant to take it. With Jamie’s help, the team researched alternative ways to give Amali the medication she needed, adapting their approach to the unique challenges of treating a young rhino.

Further investigation subsequently confirmed that Amali had salmonellosis, a bacterial infection caused by Salmonella bacteria.

Adult rhinos, as well as animals such as horses, can carry the bacteria without showing signs of illness. At certain times of physiological demand, including when a mother is producing milk for her calf, bacteria can become more active and may be shed. Our teams believe this may have been what happened with Zahra.

The rest of our rhino herd remained well throughout.

Providing treatment to Amali

In a young rhino calf, an infection like this can become very serious.

For Amali, it caused severe diarrhoea and inflammation. She lost fluid and nutrients, became dehydrated and her digestive system struggled to absorb the nutrition a growing calf needed.

Pain management was also an important part of her care. Fentanyl patches allowed the team to provide pain relief through the skin, but even finding a suitable place for a patch required problem-solving. It needed to be placed on soft skin, remain secure when Amali lay down and be somewhere Zahra couldn’t rub it off.

The solution was behind Amali’s ear.

Jamie Prutton, Clinical Director at Liphook Equine Hospital, said: “Marwell’s team worked so hard to take every opportunity when she was near the edge of the house to give her medication, which were life saving and life supporting… it was so clear how well you all worked together, the teams, all different aspects of it. Just came together for Amali and that was all that mattered in that moment in time.”

Additional biosecurity measures were also introduced. Equipment used with Amali remained with her, while a smaller group of keepers provided much of her direct care and the wider team continued caring for the other animals.

Rebuilding Amali’s digestive system

Once the immediate effects of the infection were being supported, the Veterinary team also needed to think about what Amali’s body required to recover.

The infection had disrupted the beneficial bacteria living in her digestive system. These bacteria play an important role in healthy digestion and in helping the body make use of nutrients. Rebuilding them was therefore a vital part of helping Amali recover and begin gaining weight.

Our Principal Zoo Veterinarian, Dr Elysé Summerfield-Smith contacted rhino experts in South Africa for advice, however the rhino probiotic used in South Africa, wasn’t avaulable in the UK. So, Elysé researched the bacterial strains to create an innovative treatment.

She compared numerous probiotic products available in the UK before carefully combining a human probiotic with a canine probiotic to provide the mix of beneficial bacteria Amali needed.

Caring for Zahra as well as Amali

Throughout all of this, Amali wasn’t the only rhino requiring additional care.

During Amali’s illness, Zahra developed mastitis, an inflammation of the mammary gland which affected the amount of milk she could produce.

Zahra also needed treatment and support from the team. Her keepers expressed milk from her by hand as part of managing the mastitis, while continuing to provide the intensive day-to-day care Amali needed.

Because Zahra’s milk production had been affected, the team introduced supplementary bottle feeds alongside the milk Amali continued to receive naturally from her mum. These feeds were designed to support Zahra and Amali, rather than replace feeding from mum.

A care plan that could change every day

Working out how much supplementary milk Amali needed wasn’t a fixed calculation.

Without scales available, the team estimated her weight and combined this with information about her hydration, how much she had fed from Zahra, the temperature and how she was progressing.

Her needs could change from one day to the next.

A feeding tracker allowed everyone caring for Amali to record what she had been offered, how much she had taken and how she was progressing. Monitoring continued overnight through CCTV, so the team arriving each morning already had information about her feeding and behaviour overnight.

It meant decisions could continually be adapted using the most up-to-date information available.

And it wasn’t just feeding. Across the eight weeks, different members of the team were involved in preparing feeds, administering medication, monitoring Amali and Zahra, maintaining biosecurity and recording information to help inform the next stage of their care.

Small changes, big milestones

Recovery didn’t happen overnight.

For the people caring for Amali, progress could be seen in seemingly small changes: taking more milk, gaining weight, becoming more energetic and beginning to show more of her usual behaviour.

As her digestive system recovered, she began absorbing nutrients more effectively. Her weight started to increase and her hydration and energy levels improved.

After around eight weeks of intensive care, those individual steps added up to an important milestone: Amali was discharged from intensive care. Although, she continues to receive supplementary feeds and remained under close monitoring from the Veterinary and Hoofstock teams.

A team effort

One particularly important milestone was seeing Amali exploring the main field alongside Zahra.

After weeks of intensive care, watching her explore the wider space, follow her mum and behave like a young rhino again was an encouraging moment for the people who had cared for her.

Darren Ives, Senior Hoofstock Keeper, said: “There’s been a lot of emotional late nights and early mornings, dedicated teamwork and covering each others work within the team to support Amali’s recovery and each other but seeing her today, exploring in the field, following mum and behaving like a young rhino again, really has made it all worthwhile.”

Amali’s progress wasn’t the result of one person, one treatment or one breakthrough. It brought together the vast knowledge and dedication of our Hoofstock and Veterinary teams, colleagues at Liphook Equine Hospital and rhino expertise overseas, with different people contributing at different stages of her care.

Your visit makes this possible

Amali’s story offers a glimpse into the vast amount of teamwork, specialist knowledge and care taking place at Marwell every day.

As a conservation charity, this work is made possible by people choosing to visit and support Marwell. Every visit helps us care for the animals here and supports our work to protect wildlife in the UK and around the world.

Thank you for making this possible.