Excerpt from article posted on Cincinnati.com on 8/30/2010
By John Johnston
The mother-to-be, who has gained 60 pounds since June, opens her massive mouth and begs for a snack.
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden keepers oblige with apple-oat biscuits, and the 4,120-pound Indian rhinoceros named Nikki happily chomps away during her monthly ultrasound procedure.
“I can see the placenta,” says zoo scientist Monica Stoops, holding a probe to the rhino’s underbelly while watching grainy black-and-white images on a monitor. “And I see lots of dark fluid, which is what’s surrounding the baby. And I see parts of the baby.
“Everything looks great.”
