A really sad news hits us on Saturday 5 September 2020: male Eastern Black Rhino Klyde (18 years old), the hoped breeding male at Sedgwick Zoo (USA), has died suddenly. According to official release the male rhino in the morning was well in the exhibit, with nothing wrong in his behavior, but few hours later he collapsed and passed away. The cause of death is still unknown, we hope that an official release will be released after the autopsy has been performed.

Klyde’s death not only affected keepers and zoo fans, because of his lovable attitude, but it’s also a really huge blow to the Eastern Black Rhino meta population in the USA. Klyde was quite young and has been paired to a female called Bibi for many years without siring any calf. His genetic potential was quite important, since he was the only son for mom Kulinda and dad Kijito.

Luckily he was a direct descendant of Princess and Embu, two of the founders of the current meta population and hence have some siblings in the European meta population.

Last time zoo talked about their two Eastern Black Rhinos was in Spring 2020 with a video featuring training sessions: Bibi and Klyde were supposed to be one of the few breeding couple in the USA