A rhino with an army of online fans celebrated her first birthday with some of them yesterday.

Southern white rhino Ailsa has been an internet star since the day she was born when an animal lover thousands of miles away spotted her mother Dorothy going into labour on the safari park webcam.

The viewer in Cyprus alerted staff at Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling and the baby rhino was born within minutes on December 21 2009.

Over the past year, people around the world have been following her progress on the webcam and she has fans as far afield as Saudi Arabia and Australia.

Around 20 of them have formed a blogging fan club called the Dorothy and Ailsa Watchers Group Society and decided to raise funds for her. Two of the group, who live in Scot-land, are visiting the safari park today to celebrate Ailsa’s birth-day and hand over the £1,000 cheque they have raised, which will go to a rhino conservation charity.

Park manager Gary Gilmour said: “The group have become good friends.

“One woman is writing a book of stories about what rhinos get up to and another has done caricatures of all the rhinos in different adventures.

“They have become this wee core group, so we have invited them down to present the cheque to the keepers and see Ailsa.”

The young rhino has grown to a sturdy 600 kg in her first year but is still only a third of the weight of a fully-grown adult.

Her character has also developed in the past few months as she mingles with the other three rhinos living there.

Chris Lucas, head of large mammals at the park, said: “She has become very confident and very friendly with the other rhinos.

“She gets on really well with two of them. Although her mother Dorothy is a bit grumpy, Ailsa enjoys going over and spending time with the other two and they are really good with her.”

In the summer Ailsa and her companions spend their time outside in a 20-acre paddock but in winter they stay inside in a heated building, or venture out into a covered, heated outdoor area.

Southern white rhinos are found in the open savannahs and grasslands of eastern and southern Africa and live for 25 to 45 years.

They are the most common species of rhino on the planet but are still threatened, with a population of just 4,500 worldwide.

Ailsa will spend the early years of her life at Blair Drummond before moving to another zoo in Europe to breed.