Yesterday morning, the female Indian rhino was found lifeless in her enclosure in the Rhino House at Hellabrunn Zoo. She was one of the oldest of her species living in a European zoo.
On Thursday morning, Indian rhino Rapti was found dead in her enclosure by her keeper. At 35, she had already reached an advanced age for a rhino, so it is assumed that her death was due to age-related complications. Due to the design of the Rhino House, the Munich Fire Department assisted the zoo in transferring the rhino’s body, which weighed around two tonnes, and load it into a container. She was then taken to the pathology department of the Ludwig Maximilian University to determine the exact cause of death.
Rapti arrived in Munich from Nepal in 1990 and was raised as an orphan by her zookeepers. For many years, she shared her enclosure in the Rhino House with the male rhino Niko. In 2015, she gave birth to the baby bull called Puri, who now lives at Basel Zoo and is an important part of the EAZA Ex-situ Programme (EEP) for Indian rhinos due to his genetics.
Indian rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) are classified as endangered according to the IUCN Red List. They face multiple threats to their survival, including habitat destruction and illegal poaching. There are now fewer than 3,000 Indian rhinos left in the wild, who live in small, isolated areas in India, Bhutan and Nepal.
