Once Olds has gathered the information she needs from the ultrasound, zoo employees open up the enclosure, and Ayana lumbers forward into the larger pen, once again free to venture outside into the summer sunlight.īlack rhinos are native to eastern and southern Africa. Ditto for the father, Kiano, an almost 6-year-old rhino who paces across the pen in the public viewing area not far from where Ayana’s ultrasound is taking place. This won’t just be the first baby rhino delivered at the zoo. There’s already a sense of heightened anticipation at the zoo. But the zoo hasn’t announced a more specific due date just yet. Olds, a clinician in the ISU Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences and Blank Park Zoo’s senior veterinarian, says black rhinos typically have a gestation period of around 16 months, meaning the baby likely will be born in late fall. “But we saw movement, and everything looked how we want it to.” “Getting a lot of detail on the ultrasound can be difficult,” Olds said later. But Olds studies the image closely and points out the ribs. To the untrained eye, it’s difficult to make out much detail. It doesn’t take Olds long to find what she’s looking for as she peers back over her shoulder at the ultrasound machine’s monitor: a healthy fetus that promises to be the first rhino to be born at Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines. Ayana’s surprisingly dexterous upper lip – sometimes referred to as a “hooked” or “pointed” lip – extends outward to guide the food into her mouth.īefore long, Ayana is munching happily, and Olds is gently pressing the transducer, covered in gel to improve the bond, against the rhino’s abdomen. June Olds holds the transducer of the portable ultrasound device next to the belly of Ayana, one of two endangered black rhinos at Blank Park Zoo.Īyana, temporarily situated for the procedure in an enclosure behind her pen, seems a little nervous at first, but she quickly calms down as a zookeeper gives her armfuls of alfalfa hay, apples and carrots.
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