Pittsburgh Zoo's Baby Rhino Makes Rare Appearance

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Is it possible for a rhinoceros to be considered cute? In this case, yes. The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium introduced their newest addition Friday morning.

A black rhino named Azzizi gave birth to her second calf a month ago. Mammal curator Ken Kaemmerer says it was one of the baby's first times outdoors.

"She's out with mom, whenever mom will let her. Sometimes she's out for a long time. Other times, mom sees that there might be bogeymen out there!"

He says mom's little girl grows bigger, much bigger, every day.

"She was about 79 pounds when she was born, and she's been gaining almost two and a half pounds a day. So she's up to 150 pounds now, strictly from mama's milk."

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It'll take five years until she matches her mother, who weighs in at 3,000 pounds. Meanwhile, rhino keeper Diane Hagley says the little one is excited just to get outdoors.

"The baby's kind of fascinated with everything, because she's one month old. She's been inside. All she knows is what's she's seen in her rhino nursery, so to speak. So when she goes out, she's like, 'whoa that's dirt! whoa that's rocks!' but mama sees things that scare her, and she's like, 'don't go near that, don't go near that!'"

This is not only a successful birth, but a very important one as well.

"These are black rhinos, and they're very endangered," the mammal curator says. "So every calf that is born is a boost to the population. She's doing super, super well."

In the zoo, of course, it's easy to stay away from the lions.