Webcam viewer alerts Scottish wildlife park staff to birth of baby rhino
By APThursday, February 4, 2010
UK park alerted to rhino birth by viewer on webcam
EDINBURGH, Scotland — Wildlife park employees in Scotland are celebrating the birth of a white rhinocerous — an event they would have missed without the tip of a webcam viewer.
Blair Drummond Safari Park north of Edinburgh was alerted to the impending birth by a phone call from the woman thousands of miles (kilometers) away in Cyprus who was watching the rhino enclosure on the Internet.
Keepers said the unidentified woman saw that Dorothy’s water had broken on Dec. 21 after a 16-month gestation. The tip allowed staff to be there to witness the rare event.
Park manager Gary Gilmour said Thursday: “We don’t know who this woman was, but we are grateful to her. The Webcam was like an extra pair of eyes.”
The 110-pound (50 kilogram) female calf — called Ailsa after the park’s only female keeper — was introduced to the media Thursday.
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On the Net:
www.blairdrummond.com/animals/rhinocam.php
