A female rhinoceros has drowned after slipping into a watering hole as she ran away from an over-amourouse new mate in a tragic accident at a Dutch zoo.
Elena the rhino was 'startled' by the arrival of her new mate at the Wildlands park in the northeastern Dutch city of Emmen, officials on Friday.
After being chased, the exhausted female slipped and fell into a waterhole where she drowned, bosses at the park said.
Pictured: A pair of rhinos are seen amongst other animals at at Wildlands Adventure Zoo in Emmen, Netherlands (file photo, 2018). The park was the site of a tragic accident last week when a female rhino drowned after being chased by a prospective mate
Her prospective new mate, a bull rhino called Limpopo, had been placed into her enclosure as part of a proposed breeding programme.
Beforehand, they had been kept in separate enclosures and cautiously introduced to each other through smell and sight.
But the tragic event unfolded when bosses allowed the 19-year-old bull into Elena's pen, which she shared with her sister named Zahra.
'From that moment on it became restless,' a spokesperson for park said, according to The Independent. 'Both women were startled by the male and instead of putting him in his place together, they both ran off.
'As a result, Limpopo gave chase. He seemed particularly focused on Elena because she was the closest to him.'
After a chase the exhausted female slipped into a waterhole, at which point zookeepers lured the bull rhino away from her.
'Unfortunately, this help came too late for Elena and she had already drowned,' the zoo said in a statement.
The 19-year-old Limpopo had arrived at the park in early September from another Dutch zoo where he sired three offspring as part of a European breeding programme.
The male and the Wildlands zoo's two female rhinos, sisters Elena and Zahra, started getting to know each other by smelling and seeing each other in separate pens.
