AN endangered white rhino has been killed at Copenhagen Zoo, the zoo has announced in a press release.

Zoo veterinarian Mads Bertelsen explained that the animal had been afflicted by a skin disease for more than three weeks, and had lost as much as 400 kilograms.

The animal reportedly suffered from superficial necrolytic dermatitis, a degenerative skin disorder, which causes animals to develop skin lesions.

“We have treated him extensively during this period, but the wounds in his mouth meant he had lost the desire to eat. He was now so weak that we didn’t want to keep him alive any longer out of concern for his own well-being,” Bertelsen explained.

The southern white rhinoceros, or square-lipped rhinoceros, is one of the two subspecies of the white rhinoceros. South Africa, where the euthanized animal originated, accounts for over 90 percent of its population in the wild.

The rhino came to Denmark in 2000, first staying at Knuthenborg Safari Park on the island of Lolland, and then moving to Copenhagen Zoo in 2012.

Despite his untimely death, he made an important contribution to the endangered rhinokind, having fathered three calves. Two more are due early next year.

Scandinavian, and Danish in particular, zoos previously sparked international controversy with their practice of culling animals deemed “superfluous” or “genetically inferior” and dismembering them in public. Marius the giraffe, who was killed with a stun gun and fed to lions in front of a crowd of children, arguably remains the best-remembered example of Denmark’s “zoothanasia.”

(SD-Agencies)

Copenhagen Zoo previously said it kills 20-30 antelopes, llamas, goats and other animals annually.