Let me tell you a true story!

[Dan]

But watch out – this is a story for the “the cute and cuddly” forumsters, as someone put it - it is not interesting for the hard-core bunch. It has probably none or, at best, limited scientific relevance; it has certainly nothing to do with “collections” and such. Nevertheless, it is a true story –and yet, in fact, it is something of a fairy tale - albeit with a sad ending.

Anyway, here we go:

Once upon a time, there was a white rhino in a Danish zoo. His name was Brutalis. He had been given this name because he was so brutal – he did his best to smash all fences and give his keepers a hard time. Brutalis was most dissatisfied with his life; the reason probably being that he was hand-reared by humans and didn´t seem to fit in with other rhinos. He liked to socialize with humans when it suited him. Though on occasion, he just wanted to kill anybody in his sight –“ man or beast”! Brutalis was indeed brutal!

I believe he was born in another country than Denmark, but eventually he ended up at Givskud Zoo. There, there was a very nice curator (now the Managing Director/CEO of the zoo) – I don´t remember his name but that is not important. Anyway, the decision was taken to fly Brutalis down to Africa and set him free there!

This cost a lot, but the task was accomplished!

Brutalis was flown down to Africa. I don´t remember now if he ended up in Tanzania or in Kenya or in Uganda. One of those countries, though. His first encounter with Africa almost killed him! “Damn, it… it is too hot here in Africa”, was what the European born rhino seemed to think. He almost collapsed in the booma in which he had been put and the personnel at this wildlife reserve had to spray him with water for days to cool him down and make him stand the heat.

Eventually he seemed to cope with the African heat and one beautiful day he was let out of the booma. He smelled very suspiciously at the gate, but eventually wandered out into the wilderness.

What happened afterwards? Well… Brutalis stayed true to his personality – he sometimes liked human company. He “courted” the tourist buses in the wildlife reserve when he felt like it – on other occasions he tried to smash them up. Sometimes he wandered outside the reserve and levelled the villages of the natives there.

Eventually he had a “love affair” with the manager of the wildlife reserve. He used to come to the office and hang out there for days. He even got the habit of sleeping next to the bedroom of the house in which the manager lived – the trouble being that rhinos have a lot of gas in their stomachs, so the manager had a hard time sleeping at night…

The story has a sad ending. A bigger and stronger male white rhino came into Brutalis´ territory. A fight occurred and Brutalis was killed.

Brutalis was a somewhat of a national hero in Denmark. Danish television showed us his life and Carlsberg Breweries named a beer after him. I don’t remember exactly now, but I think that Brutalis died about ten years ago.

 

[zooman]

Another example of why. The decision to hand rear cannot be made lightly.

 

[Toddy]

I can add a few detailes to the story:

Brutalis was born in Whipsnade Zoo in England. The reason he was so "screwed up" is that this was a long time ago, and when Brutalis was a young rhino he moved freely around in the park among the visitors. Being such a "cutie" he always recieved lots of attention from the visitors as well as snacks such as cotton candy, etc.

His first home after Whipsnade was Aalborg Zoo in Denmark. Because he had no idea that he was actually a rhinoceros , he became frustrated over the lack of human company and started to smash things. He had no clue on how to interact with other rhinoes.

He was sent to Givskud Zoo because they have a lot more space (Aalborg is an inner-city zoo, Givskud is a safaripark), so they thought they could handle him. There he developed a friendship with Richard Østerballe, the curator/since director that Dan mentioned above. Richard later visited Brutalis in Africa and this became one of the most moving moments on Danish television, as Brutalis still recognized his old friend and foe.

After Brutalis was sent to Africa, he began acting much more like a rhino. He still sought human company but more rarely now. There were some episodes, in addition to the ones mentioned by Dan above. He developed a habit of sleeping under the wings of planes on a landingstrip, causing some complaints from the pilots. He also once included himself in a local soccer match between the park rangers.

Brutalis spent most of his time alone in the bush. When he was killed, it was actually because he, for the first time, was showing natural rhino behavior: he was courting two females belonging to another male. This lead to the fight that sadly killed him

R.I.P. Brutalis