Sweden Frets Over Ailing Baby Rhino, Nelson

People across Sweden celebrated the birth of Nelson the snub-nosed rhinoceros a week ago. Now the rhino--Sweden’s first born in captivity--is capturing the hearts of animal lovers who fear he may die.

“Dear Nelson. All my blessings on your recovery. Be strong and grow big!” American actor Jason Scott Lee, who plays Mowgli in a new film of “The Jungle Book,” wrote in a letter to the 110-pound newborn. It was published Friday in the newspaper Aftonbladet.

Born Feb. 11 to a South African rhino named Natala, the calf was named Nelson after South Africa’s President Nelson Mandela. Officials at Kolmarden Zoo were ecstatic--until they realized the brown-skinned rhino could not stand up.

Veterinarians at first feared brain damage. On Wednesday, a visibly weak Nelson was strapped to a Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine for a brain scan. It revealed nothing wrong with his brain.

The Swedes then contacted American zoo experts, who suggested Nelson might be suffering from meningitis, which is caused by a virus similar to herpes.

Test results for meningitis or another virus were expected by early this week. If they reveal Nelson is suffering from something serious, zookeepers may have to make the difficult decision to put the rhino to sleep, Swedish veterinarian Bengy Roken told Sweden’s TT news agency.

“(If) we have not found a diagnosis, for animal protection reasons and for ethical reasons, we shouldn’t be keeping him alive,” Roken said. “It will soon no longer be defensible.”

Swedes have been agonized over Nelson’s plight. Children talk about him in their classrooms, office workers discuss him over coffee and newspapers have followed every development of his ailment in detail.

Letters and drawings expressing good wishes have been published in Swedish press. A “Nelson Fund” was formed with money from a student organization at Lund University in southern Sweden.

A sign held up by fans at a hockey match last week between two Swedish teams summed up the national sentiment. “Fight, Nelson!” it read.