A visitor takes a picture of a photograph showing a young southern white rhinoceros, drugged and blindfolded, about to be released into the wild in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, by Neil Aldridge, on 13 April 2018.
PHOTO: Evert Elzinga /ANP/AFP
- An attempt to introduce a female rhino to a new
mate took a tragic turn when the female fell into a waterhole and drowned. - The female rhino was exhausted after being
“startled” and chased around by the new male rhino. - The southern white rhino is listed as “near
threatened” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
The Hague – A female rhinoceros drowned at a zoo in
the Netherlands after an attempt to introduce her to a new mate went tragically
wrong, the zoo said on Friday.
Elena was “startled” by the arrival of a
male white rhino named Limpopo at the Wildlands zoo in the eastern city of
Emmen, near the German border.
After a chase, the exhausted female slipped into a
waterhole, at which point zookeepers lured the male away from her.
“Unfortunately, this help came too late for
Elena and she had already drowned,” the zoo said in a statement.
Limpopo, 19, had arrived at the park in early
September from another Dutch zoo where he sired three offspring as part of a
European breeding programme.
The male and the Wildlands zoo’s two female rhinos,
sisters Elena and Zahra, started getting to know each other by smelling and
seeing each other in separate pens.
The “most exciting” part, the zoo said,
was planned for Thursday morning when Limpopo was allowed into the area where
the females were grazing.
Limpopo’s past problems
“From that moment on it became restless: both
women were startled by the male and instead of putting him in his place
together, they both ran off,” it said.
“As a result, Limpopo gave chase. He seemed
particularly focused on Elena, because she was the closest to him.”
Both animals appeared exhausted after 15 minutes,
and Elena slipped into a shallow pool of water, landed on her side and was
unable to get up, the zoo said.
Caretakers were unable to stop her drowning.
The zoo said such an introduction “often
requires intervention, but never before has one been fatal”.
The male rhino had been moved from a German zoo six
years ago because he “didn’t treat the female there properly”, the
Brabants Dagblad newspaper said.
The southern white rhino is listed as “near
threatened” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature,
with 10 080 animals in existence.
Rhinos are killed for their horns, highly prized
across Asia for traditional and medicinal purposes.
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