Edinburgh Zoo is home is hundreds of amazing animals - and as part of an ongoing series with the popular attraction we are going behind the scenes to meet some of the incredible creatures and the staff that care for them.
In this episdoe we met Qabid, a very friendly eight-year-old rhino who arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in 2018 from Belgium. The two-tonne rhino is a gentle giant who was very curious about our visit and not afraid to get up close.
Music credit: Dreams - Bensound Background Music No Copyright
In this episdoe we met Qabid, a very friendly eight-year-old rhino who arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in 2018 from Belgium. The two-tonne rhino is a gentle giant who was very curious about our visit and not afraid to get up close.
Music credit: Dreams - Bensound Background Music No Copyright
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to our mini-series about Edinburgh Zoo.
00:10In each episode, we'll meet a different species and speak to their keepers about what a typical
00:14working day is like for them.
00:17In this episode, we'll be meeting Kabid, an adorable eight-year-old rhino who moved
00:21to the zoo six years ago.
00:24There we met his keeper, Katrina, who has looked after Kabid for the last year.
00:28And on her arrival, the gentle giant was enjoying his breakfast.
00:32Kabid's got a really great character, actually.
00:37He is very friendly.
00:38We call him the big gentle giant because he's large and he's very strong, and you wouldn't
00:43want to be in with him because he could accidentally squash you, but he is a very sweet rhino.
00:50He's got a lot of personality.
00:54He's quite fun.
00:55He likes to play with things.
00:57So his favourite thing is putting a bucket on his head and running about his enclosure.
01:02He does get the zoomies sometimes, so you can imagine a two-and-a-half-ton rhino running
01:07about the paddock.
01:11You wouldn't want to be in the paddock with him.
01:13We've got a mud wallow for him over the back, which he loves to roll about in and get absolutely
01:17caked in mud, and obviously likes being in his pool as well.
01:21He occasionally plays with these balls, so he's got big heavy metal balls that he'll
01:26run about with.
01:27Because he is still quite a young rhino, so obviously he is still quite playful.
01:33So yeah, he's a really nice animal to work with.
01:35A normal day is lots of cleaning, lots of shoveling up rhino poo because he eats a lot,
01:42so obviously a lot comes out the other end as well.
01:44So that's how we typically spend our morning, is mostly just cleaning.
01:48We like to get that done and out of the way in the morning.
01:51We clean his pool twice a week, so I drain that, clean that up, and then we hose everything
01:57down, give everything a good scrub so it's nice and clean, fill up his water troughs
02:01if we need them done.
02:03We also give him his breakfast in the morning, so he's currently down in the bottom paddock
02:07and that's where he gets his breakfast.
02:09His breakfast and his dinner consists of some browser pellets, and he gets a whole cabbage,
02:15a whole white cabbage, and he gets usually between four and six carrots as well.
02:21The browser pellets are weighed out, so we know exactly what he's getting.
02:24His hay is more kind of ad-lib, he just gets as and when, and we just top up his hay heck
02:30whenever he wants because he's allowed to get as much hay as he wants basically.
02:35And working with Kabit, it's not something Katrina takes for granted.
02:40Getting to be up that close to a rhino is pretty amazing.
02:44Obviously as a keeper, we like to build their trust and stuff, so we make sure he's used
02:50to us touching his face and things like that.
02:53For being able to do health checks and stuff, it's really important that he's comfortable
02:57around us, so it's just amazing to be able to do that and to be able to touch a one-horned
03:04rhino is not something a lot of people have done in their life.
03:08It's just great to be around him and provide him a good life basically until he goes off
03:12and hopefully has babies and helps the population and stuff.
03:17Join us next time when we'll be visiting the penguins and learning about how keepers
03:21at the zoo care for the animals.