Rare Indian Rhino at Home in Cologne

A rare red Indian rhinoceros costing the equivalent of $66,000 has arrived at the Cologne Zoo after a six-week ocean trip from Calcutta.

The zoo said Tuesday that it plans to mate the female rhinoceros, named Gomati, with a red Indian bull named Charly. Gomati, who arrived Monday in Cologne, was placed in a cage next to Charly’s, and the grating separating them will be removed when they get to know each other better.

“This is a wonderful event,” zoo director Gunther Nogge said when Gomati began to take an interest in her surroundings.

The zoo hopes that the animals will produce young because the red Indian rhino, whose skin has an armor-plate arrangement, is a threatened species. There only are 77 of them in zoos throughout the world and about 1,000 living in the wild in India and Nepal.