Over the past four weeks the video webcam on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Devon website has been pulling in thousands of viewers every day - with some users now addicted to their daily dose of rhino action. Paignton Zoo and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ started all-night monitoring of Sita on Tuesday 20th February using a rota of rhino watchers. ´óÏó´«Ã½ staff cover 5pm until around 10pm with zoo staff and students (based at the zoo for their studies) doing shifts through the night. The aim is to select the best view of Sita on the webcam during the night and to have someone on hand to let the mammal keepers and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ film crew know when the birth begins. Here's Philip Knowling's diary of a night on Sita watch. 8:00pm Arrive at zoo entrance with woolly hats, gloves, thick socks, sleeping-bags, snacks and Thermos full of coffee. The weather is not cold, but we'll be sitting still a lot. Check in with security and head for the control room. The zoo is a bit spooky at night - lots of mysterious calls and barks! 8:30pm The control room - about 30 metres from the rhino house - looks like mission control, with its TV monitors, digital recorders, computers and miles of cabling. The technology is very fancy - it is amazing we haven't had more breaks in transmission. If this was easy everyone would be doing it. The room is closed to visitors even when the zoo is open, but you can see everything through the windows. 9:15pm
 | | The joystick that controls the camera |
We have been briefed on how to work the cameras. There are two, though only one sends pictures to the web site. They are moved with joy-sticks and at night you have to open and close the iris manually. As big as she is, it's quite easy to lose Sita when she is wandering around - as readers of the messageboard will know! 9:30pm Sita spends time lying down, standing up, walking around, eating and defecating. I love the way her ears flick and waggle. 11:00pm One person gets some sleep while the other watches. We have a camp bed in the corner. Every quarter of an hour the computer records five minutes of footage and sends it to the server. This is the film clip that people on the web site can watch for the next fifteen minutes, before another one is uploaded. A security guard checks in to see we are OK. 1:00am Everything is quiet - except for a bit of snoring from the camp bed! Security check in and we discuss rhinos – of course! Sita is probably the most famous rhino in the world right now but she is oblivious to it all, munching away on her browse (branches) and some carrots. 3:00am Time for a change - I grab some sleep. It's amazing how time passes when you are waiting for a rhino to give birth. 6:30am It's already getting light and the dawn chorus starts - the twittering of birds is augmented by the bark of the maned wolves and the calls of gibbons. Some of the zoo peafowl roost in the tree outside. 7:50am Keepers and volunteers start to appear and the working day gets underway. No birth on our watch - but it has been a fascinating night. - Sita's keepers expect the birth to happen during the night
- Generally rhinos give birth standing up
- Sita is showing physical signs of being ready to give birth
- The zoo hopes to let nature take its course
- Keepers won't intervene unless they have to
- There is no due day
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