Brazil News
| BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil – A rhea at the Municipal Zoo of Uberlandia died Friday morning, after undergoing surgery to remove a 6 cm (2 ¼") padlock it had swallowed. The large flightless bird, resembling an ostrich but smaller, took advantage of its keeper's inattention and swallowed the lock, which was hanging on its cage.
Rhea Swallowed Padlock (image: Correio de Uberlandia)
Zookeepers took the bird to a veterinary hospital where an x-ray clearly showed the object in the bird's stomach. Vets put the bird under anesthesia and performed an endoscopy to remove the lock, but due to the presence of other foreign objects in the stomach, they were unable to remove it.
In addition to the lock, the bird had four large seeds, a piece of plastic, 3 small stones, a piece of glass and 150 sticks of wood of varying sizes as well as bite sized pieces of plastic bags.
The rhea is considered a vulnerable animal in the state of Minas Gerais, due possibly to the expansion of agriculture in conservation areas. The bird belongs to the same family as ostriches, cassowaries, emus and kiwis. Its death is a major loss for the zoo.
Read also: More Articles from Brazil Dispatch
Brazilian online news source for this article: Correio de Uberlandia
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