Alice
[from NC Zoo media release - 1/4/11] "The North Carolina Zoo lost one of the eldest and most popular members of its animal family Tuesday when “Alice,” a 41-year-old Southern white rhino, was euthanized after a lengthy illness."
Zoo Senior Veterinarian Dr. Ryan DeVoe, "said the rhino’s foot infections combined with other problems associated with her age and skin lesions that had developed as a reaction to pain medications administered several times daily had diminished the animal’s quality of life to the point that both keepers and veterinarians agreed euthanasia was the best option."
"Born in South Africa in 1967, Alice came to a fledgling N.C. Zoo in September 1976 as one of two Southern white rhinos exhibited in the park’s “Interim Zoo”—a collection of temporary exhibits and holding paddocks used to display animals before the zoo’s first permanent exhibits began opening in 1979.
"“What can I say, everybody loved Alice,” observed veteran keeper Jim Small, who recalled when Alice and a male rhino named Ted beat him to his first day on the job by just 12 hours. “She arrived here at 8 p.m. on September 30, 1976, and I started October 1 at 8 a.m.
"Alice was pregnant when she arrived, Small remembers, and in August 1977 after the 15-month rhino gestation period, gave birth to the zoo’s first, and still its only, baby rhino. The female youngster, appropriately named Caroline, now resides at the Fossil Rim Zoo in Texas.
"“I’m really going to miss her,” Small said of his former animal charge. “She was a sweetie.”
"Southern whites, one of five rhino species native to Africa and Asia, have an average life span of 35-45 years. Six other rhinos in the N.C. Zoo’s collection, including two above age 40, remain in good health and on exhibit daily in the park’s Watani Grassland Reserve exhibit."
Zoo Senior Veterinarian Dr. Ryan DeVoe, "said the rhino’s foot infections combined with other problems associated with her age and skin lesions that had developed as a reaction to pain medications administered several times daily had diminished the animal’s quality of life to the point that both keepers and veterinarians agreed euthanasia was the best option."
"Born in South Africa in 1967, Alice came to a fledgling N.C. Zoo in September 1976 as one of two Southern white rhinos exhibited in the park’s “Interim Zoo”—a collection of temporary exhibits and holding paddocks used to display animals before the zoo’s first permanent exhibits began opening in 1979.
"“What can I say, everybody loved Alice,” observed veteran keeper Jim Small, who recalled when Alice and a male rhino named Ted beat him to his first day on the job by just 12 hours. “She arrived here at 8 p.m. on September 30, 1976, and I started October 1 at 8 a.m.
"Alice was pregnant when she arrived, Small remembers, and in August 1977 after the 15-month rhino gestation period, gave birth to the zoo’s first, and still its only, baby rhino. The female youngster, appropriately named Caroline, now resides at the Fossil Rim Zoo in Texas.
"“I’m really going to miss her,” Small said of his former animal charge. “She was a sweetie.”
"Southern whites, one of five rhino species native to Africa and Asia, have an average life span of 35-45 years. Six other rhinos in the N.C. Zoo’s collection, including two above age 40, remain in good health and on exhibit daily in the park’s Watani Grassland Reserve exhibit."
Labels: Alice, Jim Small, NC Zoo, rhino, rhinoceros, southern white rhino
posted by Russ Williams at
6:38 PM
2 Comments:
This is so sad. I remember when Bob and Carol, Ted and Alice were here. I think named from the movie(?)
Condolences to her keepers, she will be missed.
Yes. From the movie. Alice (and Ted) gave birth to Caroline.
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