Rhino too horny for its own good

Cosmetic surgery is not to be sniffed at, but when the patient is a two-ton rhinoceros a scalpel just won’t get the job done.

Keepers at the Ramat Gan Safari were concerned that Maya the rhino’s long and awkwardly downward pointing horn was stopping her from chomping down her daily diet.

The horn, which extended beyond end of her nose, prevented Maya from getting close enough to the ground to eat properly. As a result, Channel 10 reported on Sunday, the decision was taken to perform some rhino rhinoplasty and saw off half of Maya’s horn.

A couple of shots from a tranquilizer gun left Maya suitably sedated but there still remained a large problem — Mazal, her mother, who kept a concerned eye on her offspring. Eventually, keepers were able to separate the two and get to work on Maya with a circular saw — that proved to be inadequate at chopping through the tough horn. With no other choice, keepers brought in a chain saw that quickly finished the operation before the tranquilizers wore off.

Maya seemed unperturbed by her surgery, which took place last week, and soon got back to her now easier grazing.

The removed piece of horn, which keepers estimate is worth three times its weight in gold on the illegal traditional medicines market, is to be kept at the safari as an educational tool.