Honolulu Zoo’s surviving black rhino dies 3 months after his mate

Corky, a 35-year-old male black rhinoceros with a big personality who was a favorite of Honolulu Zoo staff and visitors, was euthanized Tuesday due to complications of chronic kidney failure.

His death, announced Thursday, “was hard on the staff,” said zoo Director Linda Santos in a phone interview. But zoo veterinarians, curators and keepers made the decision based on Corky’s condition, she said.

Renal failure was detected a month ago in routine blood tests, “and giving fluids regularly is hard with a large, wild animal,” Dr. Jill Yoshicedo, zoo veterinarian, said in the interview.

While the average life span of the black, or hook-lipped, rhinoceros ranges from 35 to 50 years, “starting at 35, they’re definitely considered a senior rhino,” Yoshicedo said.

Corky had been a zoo resident since 1999. He was an active and engaged senior, Santos said.

“He was very responsive with his keepers, participating in training,” she said, “but if you were a new person, he was very cautious until he got to know you, which is kind of the nature of black rhinos in general — they’re high-strung.”

Regular visitors enjoyed “watching him roam around foraging, rolling in his wallow or eating his treats.”

Corky was born in December 1986 at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. For 22 years he lived alongside female rhinoceros Satuski at Honolulu Zoo until her death in December.

Asked whether the recent loss could have hastened Corky’s decline, “Certainly, animals form attachments, and Corky could have been feeling sad, but missing her wouldn’t make him go into kidney failure,” the veterinarian said, noting, “Renal failure doesn’t show up in blood tests until the kidneys are 75% not working anymore.”

Black rhinoceros are native to eastern and southern Africa and are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

While the Honolulu Zoo might acquire another black rhino if the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan program finds a match, “Corky will be dearly missed,” Santos said.