Whipsnade Zoo rhino helps fellow species live on
Last updated 18th Nov 2021
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo has carried out a post mortem on 40-year-old, Southern white rhinoceros, Clara.
Tissue samples collected from the ageing rhino will be used to help with the conservation and care of her fellow species. This includes a bio-bank of live cells that are designed to help protect the species against future extinction.
After Clara stopped eating and began to lose weight, an examination soon revealed that she wasn't going to recover.
She was put to sleep on Wednesday 10th November 2021.
ZSL’s wildlife veterinary pathologist, Dr Simon Spiro said: “What we found in Clara was some really quite nasty dental disease, all very age-related.
Her dental problems were severe and were stopping her from being able to eat, and could not have been rectified. She was unable to properly digest food. This is often the cause of death in older rhinos.
It was the right decision by the veterinary team to euthanise Clara before she experienced pain from the condition."
Speaking on the post-mortem carried out after her death, Dr Spiro said: "Doing a post-mortem in an animal doesn’t just aid our understanding of a disease in that individual animal, it also aids our understanding of the species in the wild.
It can help our vets increase their understanding of new syndromes, potential threats to other animals, and clinical decision-making.
With the future of rhinos in such jeopardy, ZSL’s own DNA bank will keep a copy of Clara’s genome to store indefinitely, and the specialist programme The Rhino Fertility Project at the University of Oxford is working to develop ways to grow immature eggs from Clara's ovary and generate mature eggs from them so that they can potentially be fertilised to produce white rhino embryos in the future.”
“Meanwhile, a skin sample from Clara’s ear will be treated and cryopreserved by partner organisation Nature’s SAFE, a living biobank, who store cell lines from endangered animal species.
Clara’s cells will be used to create an immortal cell line so that her cells can be used to study white rhino biology and genetics for years to come.”
Dr Spiro continued: "A third collaboration, this time with the Wellcome Sanger Institute, will use Clara’s tissue to investigate the genetics of ageing.
Clara, at 40, was the equivalent of an 80 or 90-year-old human, so may have accumulated genetic mutations throughout her life.
By studying her cells to see if they have mutated, scientists may be able to see if rhinos age the same way as humans age, whether they are better or worse at resisting ageing, and use that information to better understand the development of cancers and heart disease.”
All findings from post-mortems like Clara's are stored on the Zoo Information Management System (ZIMS) enabling vets and zoos around the world to share knowledge and understanding of the threatened species they look after.
Dr Spiro concluded: "Even in death, there can be life. While it is very sad for all of us that Clara’s gone, her tissues will influence the way we look after and protect this incredible species in the wild for years to come. In that sense, Clara will be part of the future conservation of this incredible species in a way that will live on forever."