By Irene Wright

The Charlotte Observer
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A 2nd zebra has died at a Tennessee zoo after colliding with enclosure fencing, officers declared.
Lydia, a 7-calendar year-outdated Hartmann’s mountain zebra, died from a traumatic neck injury on April 22, according to a publish from Zoo Knoxville.
Officers stated an ambulance was referred to as to the zoo to react to a customer and necessary accessibility to a visitor pathway that runs in entrance of the zebra enclosure.
The zoo reported workers asked the healthcare staff to flip off the ambulance sirens, but even with a quieter entry, the zebra herd nonetheless became distressed.
“Although the zebra are acclimated to truck and car or truck traffic on the company highway behind their habitat, they are not accustomed to website traffic in that space,” the article reported. “Staff pointed out the zebras were reactive to the ambulance and quickly began intervention to shift them from the region of the habitat in proximity to the very first responders.”
The zebras began to relaxed down, the zoo stated, and staff members made a decision to maintain the zebras in their enclosure though the initially responders passed.
Then, 8 minutes immediately after the ambulance experienced still left the place, Lydia “unexpectedly bolted” and crashed into the enclosure’s fencing.
The employees straight away begun their emergency protocols and moved the other zebras out of the enclosure to make it safer for employees to approach and handle Lydia.
By the time the staff and veterinary staff bought to Lydia, she experienced died, the zoo claimed. Lydia died instantaneously when she strike the fencing, most likely breaking her neck, the veterinary employees claimed.
“We regularly drill for emergencies to be well prepared for every single conceivable situation to ensure positive results. Sadly, even with all our initiatives yesterday to treatment for our men and women and our animals we had a tragic incident manifest,” Lisa New, president and CEO of Zoo Knoxville, said in the post. “While we did anything we could to stability the need to have for crisis treatment for our worker and retaining our zebra steady in the method, we had been nonetheless working with wild animals that reacted as these.”
This isn’t the very first time the zoo has lost a zebra this way, it reported.
In 2021, a zebra named Wiley, 5, was “being prepped for a veterinary procedure” when she took off and collided with 1 of the corral fences, killing her.
“As you can picture, this is a very challenging scenario for everybody and we appreciate the compassion our friends showed us as this unfolded yesterday,” New said of Lydia’s death.
Zoo Knoxville maintained a herd of 4 mountain zebras in advance of shedding Lydia, who arrived at the zoo in 2018.
Mountain zebras are a vulnerable species with only an estimated 8,000 animals still left in the wild, according to Zoo Knoxville curator Petty Grieve.
Lydia, together with two other zebras, came to Zoo Knoxville as portion of a species survival system system that will work to develop declining animal populations as a result of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Mountain zebras are uncovered in the wild in southern Africa along the edge of the Namib desert, according to the zoo. They weigh an ordinary of 600 lbs and can dwell to ages of 60 to 70 a long time in the wild.
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