Nelly; the female rhino, dies

One of the adult female rhinos in the Mosi-Oa-Tunya national park in Livingstone has died.

Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) Communications and Public Relations Officer Mwila Muliyunda said the rhino died on Tuesday.

Ms. Muliyunda said the rhino, called Nelly, died on October 14, 2014 during a routine veterinary procedure following anaesthetic immobilization to insert an implant for real time positional location.

She said in a statement to ZANIS that a post-postmortem is being conducted to ascertain the underlining cause of death.

“Nelly was one of the four rhinos brought to Mosi-Oa-Tunya in 2008 to restock the park after the rhino population was reduced to one and during her time in the park she bred two calves which were born on February 20, 2011 and February 20, 2014,” she said.

Ms. Muliyunda said the number of rhinos in the park now stands at eight adding that the remaining baby calf has already shown signs of bonding with other rhinos.

She said this is one of the tools to enhance the management of the white rhino and that despite the setback, one of the remaining rhinos was due to deliver at the end of the year or in January 2015.