Death of Rhino Laid to Aneurysm : Rare Animal from S.D. Zoo Bound for Breeding in Oregon

A rare female southern white rhinoceros suffered an aneurysm and bled to death after spending 76 hours in a cramped shipping crate following a trip from San Diego to Winston, Ore., where she was going to be placed in a breeding program, a San Diego Zoo official said Tuesday.

Zoo spokesman Jeff Jouett said that the cause of death was listed in a necropsy report released Monday by veterinarians at the Wildlife Safari in Winston. Jouett said he did not know where in the animal’s body the aneurysm occurred, but he listed the cause of death as internal bleeding.

After the rhino’s death on Friday, there was speculation that the animal’s cramped quarters may have led to stress and contributed to her death.

But officials at the San Diego Zoo and Wildlife Safari said they were unsure what caused the animal’s blood vessel to burst.

“It’s hard to say. It could have been genetic or caused by a parasitic infection,” Jouett said. “Why it chose to burst at this time is open to conjecture. Yes, the excitement of the move may have raised her blood pressure to the point that she popped the vessel. We just don’t know.”

Kept in a Crate

John Cooper, a Wildlife Safari spokesman, said that the rhino, who was 26 years old and named Maguhgyani, spent 38 hours in a 4-by-10-foot shipping crate while it was transported on a flat-bed trailer. After arriving at the Oregon park, the rhino was kept in the crate an additional 38 hours because her holding pen was not ready, he added.

On Monday, several rhino experts said that the use of crates is a common and acceptable means of transporting the giant animals.

“This was a typical transport method,” said Mike Dee, curator of mammals at the Los Angeles Zoo. Dee, who is a member of a propagation group that studies ways to increase the number of white rhinos, said that crates are used for the animal’s safety.

“It really is the safest way to transport them. These are very big and heavy animals and you don’t want to put them in an environment where they’re going to be walking around, banging the sides and maybe getting a head of steam and ramming their way out,” Dee said.

In the past, rhinos that have been shipped from Africa have spent as many as 45 days in similar crates without dying or suffering injury, Dee and other experts said. Crates used to ship rhinos are enclosed with bars and swinging doors at the ends so the animal can be fed and the crate cleaned. The crate also has an air hole at the top.

Highly Valuable Rhino

White rhinos were recently moved from the “endangered” to the “threatened” list. Maguhgyani came to San Diego from the San Francisco Zoo in June. Saul Kitchner, director of the San Francisco Zoo, said the zoo received her from South Africa in 1963. San Diego Zoo officials agreed to send her to the Oregon park on an indefinite breeding loan.

According to Kitchner, San Francisco Zoo officials were going to send Maguhgyani to the Wildlife Safari park earlier this year but a holding pen was not available. San Francisco was also running short of space to hold her, so the rhino was sent to San Diego until her new home in Oregon was ready. Wildlife Safari officials said that Maguhgyani was going to be bred with Jack, a 15-year-old male.

Maguhgyani, who was captured in the wild, had never bred in captivity and these two factors made her especially valuable, Kitchner said. She represented a new genetic bloodline, which is important to guarantee the white rhino’s survival, he added. Zoologists strive to minimize breeding among certain blood lines in order to protect against overrepresentation of a particular genealogical line or lines.

The breeding of white rhinos is coordinated through a Species Survival Plan directed by Robert Reece, director of the Wild Animal Habitat at Kings Island, Ohio.

San Diego Zoo officials will not automatically send another rhino to Oregon to replace Maguhgyani, Jouett said. They will wait until Reece decides on the best female to breed with Jack at the Wildlife Safari.