Zoo's rhino expecting again
Nikki gave birth to stillborn calf in 2008
November 5, 2009, 2:39 p.m.
STAFF REPORT
A Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden rhinoceros whose groundbreaking pregnancy resulted in a stillborn calf last year is expecting again.
The zoo hopes Nikki's second pregnancy will result in what officials say would be the world's first live birth of an Indian rhinoceros conceived by artificial insemination.
Nikki, an 18-year-old, 3,950-pound rhino on indefinite loan from the Toronto Zoo, is 133 days into a 480-day gestation period.
Vinu, a 38-year-old Indian rhino at the Bronx Zoo, is the father. His sperm was collected in 2005, stored for four years at 320 degrees below zero in CREW's CryoBioBank and thawed for the artificial insemination procedure in June.
The new delivery is expected in October 2010.
Male Indian rhinos have been known to injure females in natural breeding.
The Indian rhino is ranked vulnerable on a threatened species list.