Taronga Zoo Rhino Tragedy

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ara
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Ara

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This is a major set-back for australian zoos.

Kua the female Indian rhino at Taronga has died.
She was only imported from San diego last year and died of a blockage in her gut caused by swallowing sand.

Whats worse, she was apparently pregnant (which they hadn't realised when she was imported,) and was halfway through her 16 month pregnancy.
 
Thanks for the welcome Glyn, sorry my first post had to be such a downer.

My mates daughter works for Taronga, which is how I found out.
Apparently some of the staff are really shattered by this.
 
tht is terrible, no doubt they would be upset, i mean yes its a set abck, but lets think about the individual, its sad to loose such a beautiful animal
 
well ara, i hope for your sake your mates daughter doesnt get in any trouble about disclosing this kind of info to the public. i believe the ZPB of NSW has a stringent policy on unauthorised media releases.
and as you said, i wish it wasnt such bad news you had to report. its a shame given all the resources, both in terms of finance and staff that have been invested in this program. and kua being pregnant, would have added a new line to the program through her offspring.
this represents a major setback to the program. female indian rhinos are not easy to come by. it may be up to 5 years before another animal sets foot on australian soil, and even longer before a calf arrives.
i hope tings work out for the best in the future
 
this is really upsetting

kua was a beautiful rhino, and would have loved dubbo. i like to think about the individual animal, its sad to loose such a beautiful animal, and sad that dora will not be in occupance with his own species. its sad news to here she was also pregges.

yes there wasa huge investment in resources etc, but i like to think along lines of the individual animal or group. its a sad day for her keepers, and those who loved her, and for dora
 
when these sad events come up, there is often in my opinion to much emphasis on cost of moving, resources, new exhibit etc. i mean yes thts important, and yes it;s a huge capital investment, but think about kua, and her keepers and dora, and the little bub, animals are charasmatic, and not just tools
 
thats true, but you have to be rational about it too. its a setback no matter what way you look at it. trust me, i do have a heart
 
wow it just gets better and better. be interesting to see if the zoo posts this on its website...as it was a tragic accident they should. if anything kua's death underscores the vital importance of zoo breeding program when you consider how rare they are!
 
the greenies are now calling for taronga zoo to release full details of kua's death, and are making alligations that the zoo 'underfed' her, which led to her death.

i wish these people would just leave her alone, and her caring keepers alone. it's disgusting that these people are making allegations against the keepers who love her. it's sickening, and they need to wake up for the selves.

Rest In Peace Kua
 
its an interesting scenario.

there is no denying that the taronga zoo f@$%ed up royally here...but is it any different to melbourne putting guenons into its gorilla exhibit (that caused motaba to kill a guenon?). what about melbournes mandrill that drowned in the moat becuse the exhibit design encouraged activity above the water and mandrills can't swim....

my point is that animals die all the time at zoos. and since it is the keepers who care for them - any deaths that can not be attributed to old-age attrition must by default be at least indirectly the fault of the keeper or zoo management. but how on earth are you going to dictate which scenarios are a reflection of neglegence worthy of repromanding and which are not?

by the "value" of the animal?

i might write to the greens and let them know that i want to hand myself in. i killed one of my fish the other day - true story. it was underfed and i didn't bother isolating it and it just withered away and died. i did little about it and actually left its flaoting corpse in the tank for a day hoping the other inhabitatnts would devour it. i admittedly didn't even care that it died i wasn't much into that particular species anyway..

i'm not saying it wasn't a major &*#$ up, i'm just saying i would be interested to ask the greens why they feel taronga zoo should be exposed for killing a rhino, but not melbourne for a guenon....and so forth. anyone get my drift?
 
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that same old scratched record again. instead of focusing on the death of an endangered species of rhino, the future of which as a whole is a little more secure through zoo assurance programs, why doesnt lee rhiannon's party focus on real animal cruelty? and get her a ****ing hair rinse whilst theyre at it, i mean, a more tired looking person ive never seen. she's taking too many tips from rosemary stanton (sorry rosemary)
i get your drift pat.
in fact i was surprised the greens even paid any attention to this one. it wasnt a dolphin, or an elephant or tiger. it was a captive bred rhino. maybe taronga should start exhibiting battery hens, just to give the greens a real distraction and some real animal cruelty to invest their energy in.
do the sums.....you have a young rhino, who has went through pre-export, import quarantine, and regular health checks. in the US kua was not the focus of the breeding program, her part in that role was to be here in australia. im not surprised the zoo missed it. i also would have come to the same conclusion-a smallish exhibit-temporary, and great for conditioing purposes-a 4 year old rhino-with no access to a male-i would have put it down to weight gain too.
half way throuh a 16 month pregnancy, only 3 when she arrived.
its a tragic situation, but really, this is a pure accident.
 
Kua's Death

Keepers at dubbo were interviewed on our local news and they were devastated about this. they seemed pretty pissed with Taronga. The local news said that Taronga believed she was overweight. So they cut back on the amount they were feeding her which led her to eat the substrate in her holding area nd block her up. Not good news at all.
 
in these situations its best to shut your trap since unless you work at the zoo its hard to have an opinion based on anny kind of accuracy.

i will say this. its particuarly sad that nobody thought that she might have been pregnant. yoou would have thought it to be the first factor the keepers/vets would attempt to eliminate in looking for answers for her weight gain..
 
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