Freak Zoo Accident Claims Life of Rare Indian Rhino

A rare, 2 1/2-ton Indian rhinoceros died at the Los Angeles Zoo after getting its head stuck in an 18-inch hole, officials said Thursday.

In what Zoo Director Warren Thomas called “one of those unfortunate freak accidents,” the 20-year-old rhino, while penned in a nighttime enclosure, stood on its hind legs and put its head in an opening about 8 feet off the ground.

Zoo officials believe that the rhino, a female known as Rhada, died of shock, Thomas said.

“The air tracts were functional, so it did not die of strangulation or any air cutoff,” Thomas said.

A necropsy has been done, he said, but the results have not been obtained.

Indian rhinos are an endangered species, zoo spokeswoman Lora La Marca said, and this was one of only 75 in captivity. There are an estimated 2,000 in the wild. Rhada had been at the zoo for 19 years and was considered especially valuable because she had been a successful breeder, with two surviving offspring.

The rhino was placed in its own two-room barn enclosure as usual late Wednesday. Sometime during the night, La Marca said, it went to the door leading to the public exhibit. The door has steel bars at the top and a small opening above that.

Thomas theorized that the rhino put its head sideways in order to fit into the hole, and then straightened its head. When it went to pull its head out, he said, “it’s horn hooked. . . .”

“You’re dealing with an animal with a relatively limited intelligence level, and she panicked. It never occurred to her to turn her head slightly sideways to slip her head out,” he said.

The death was not discovered until about 8:30 a.m. Thursday when a rhino keeper came to work and found Rhada. During the night, Thomas said, the zoo has emergency procedures for ill animals and special care for animals in the nursery but no routine checks of healthy animals in their nighttime enclosures.

“You don’t want to disturb them,” he said. “You don’t want to spook them.”

No Clue

Officials are mystified why the rhino went for a hole so high off the ground, La Marca said, but added that Rhada was in heat and thus might have been “agitated.”

Dr. Martin Dinnes, a Saugus-based veterinarian with a world-wide practice treating wild animals, said rhinos usually keep their heads angled towards the ground.

“That’s their normal posture,” he said. “If I were going to put a hole in a (rhino) enclosure I would put it 8 feet high and not expect it to put its head through.”

The hole has now been covered, Thomas said.

Dr. James Roswurm, chief of veterinary services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said his staff inspected the Los Angeles Zoo last month and found only one “minor deficiency” involving peeling paint in one area.

“There was nothing animal threatening,” he said, and nothing found amiss in the rhino enclosures.

Nevertheless, he added, his office will look into the incident.

With Rhada’s death, the zoo will then be left with two Indian rhinos. By prior arrangement, one of her offspring, Chandra, a 3-year-old male, is being sent to live at the Oklahoma City Zoo this month.