A white rhino was shot and killed in Dec 1996 after breaking out of the privately owned zoo of Acadiana in Broussard. Vets with tranquillizer guns were trying to approach it when it suddenly charged one of them. The 10-year old female was believed to be pregnant.
Two 1/1 white rhino sent from USA to China died of exposure and dehydration in July 1996 while enroute from Shanghai to Chengdu Zoo. They should have been transported by rail, a journey of 8 hours, but instead were taken by truck along the 1650 mile route in oppressive summer heat, apparently because their crates were too big for Chinese rail cars. The animals, both born to wild-caught parents in a New Jersey collection in 1975, had been in Pittsburgh since 1977, but never bred. Because of inadequate parentage records, they were regarded as surplus by the SSP and the Zoological Society of San Diego negotiated their loan to Chengdu. [i.e. studbook 481 and 482]
