Animal caretakers at the Potter Park Zoo are mourning the loss of two animals – a female rhino and a red panda cub – in one week.
The zoo’s female rhino, Doppsee, had declined in health over the past month, including a blockage in her stomach.
The zoo’s animal care supervisor, Pat Fountain, says the past few weeks have been a rollercoaster for the team caring for her.
“We’d have days where she was trending up and acting like her old self and that everything was great and we were getting hopeful, and then there were days where she would be in discomfort and pain and we’d have to change our tactic,” Fountain said.
Ultimately, the decision was made that euthanizing Doppsee was the only humane path forward.
The decision was devastating for the zoo staff that has cared for her for more than 14 years. But Fountain says her legacy will live on.
Her offspring, a male rhino named Jaali, captured international attention when he was born on Christmas Eve in 2019. He now resides at a zoo in California as part of a breeding program zoologists hope will help save the species from extinction.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums pairs animals for mating as part of the Species Survival Program. Fountain says they will help determine whether to pair the zoo’s male rhino with another female.
Another member of that program is the Potter Park Zoo’s female red panda, Maliha.
She gave birth to her third cub in July. But red pandas have very high neonatal mortality rates at about 40%, and the cub died this week.
Fountain says the loss is particularly hard since the zoo has had success in the past, making this a new experience for them.
“The keeper staff are taking it hard,” Fountain said. “Obviously it’s a difficult loss for them, as unexpected and as quickly as it was.”
He says some of the cub’s older siblings have gone on to have cubs of their own at other zoos, creating a strong lineage for their mother.
