Baby rhino Ailsa born safely at Blair Drummond Safari & Adventure Park thanks to webcam viewer
Last updated 09/02/2010 09:00:51
Baby rhino Ailsa born safely at Blair Drummond Safari Adventure Park
A baby rhino has been safely delivered at a Scottish safari park after a webcam viewer in Cyprus spotted that its mother's waters had broken and alerted staff.
Southern white rhino Dot gave birth to a little girl, Ailsa, at Blair Drummond Safari & Adventure Park, near Stirling following a 16 month pregnancy.
The rhino calf was only one of eight Southern white rhino born in Europe in the past year.The safari park was keen to share the rare event with everyone so set up its Rhino Webcam in the hope that it would capture would catch the birth.
"Rhinos normally give birth in the very early hours of the morning, and we all thought that we may miss it," it explains on its website. "But a phone call from a viewer in Cyprus informed us that at 12 noon Dot's waters had broken and she was in labour. At 12:15 Dot successfully gave birth without any complications under the watchful eye of the large mammal keepers, park staff and home viewers."
As she's been born during Scotland's coldest winter in 30 years, mum and calf have been kept indoors in their highly heated indoor pen. Now with the weather getting better and the temperature rising, her keepers are confident to let mum and calf venture out into their covered outdoor enclosure.
The webcam achieved so many viewers worldwide that the safari park has now installed a second outdoor camera to allow its viewers to follow the progress of the calf as she grows and explores her new home. Dot and Ailsa share their enclosure with 3 other rhinos, Graham the calf's dad, Mazumba (or Maz) her sister, and Jane an unrelated adult female.
As the calf is still very young it will be another few months yet until she is mixed with the rest of her herd.Weighing an estimated 50kg at birth, the calf already weighs 150kg at the age of 5 weeks. But she still has a lot of growing to do, as Dot weighs about 1,600kg.
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