Quebec zoo announces death of Canada's 1st white rhino, Shaboola

CBC

06-02-2025

Quebec's Granby Zoo has announced "painful" news of the passing of a beloved member of its community — a 45-year-old white rhinoceros, Shaboola.
Suffering from osteoarthritis, dental issues, chronic kidney failure and chronic foot problems, which required intervention in her later years, the Granby Zoo said it made the decision to pursue euthanasia on Feb. 5.
"It was a very hard moment," says Dr. Cédric Larouche, who has been treating Shaboola for over two years.
"We could not manage to keep her comfortable anymore."
Outliving the average lifespan of a white rhinoceros by nearly 10 years, Shaboola was the oldest animal in a zoological environment in Canada and the third oldest female in North America, according to the zoo.
Shaboola was also no stranger to media attention.
Just hours after her birth on Oct. 13, 1979 at the Toronto Zoo, she made headlines as the first white rhinoceros born in Canada.
In 2012, Shaboola joined the Granby Zoo to keep a nine-year-old rhino company — a male named K.C.
"It's a pretty big loss for him," said Larouche. "This morning he was kind of looking for her."
Larouche says Shaboola was a character — sweet and always eager to get pets and food.
"She could have like a pretty strong attitude when she was not happy," said Larouche.
"She was pretty strict about her boundaries. K.C. really loved her. He really wanted to be close to her, but Shaboola had her limits and she was telling him when he was being too pushy."
If she was really upset, Larouche says she would loudly exhale or even vocalize her anger, a sound which could be compared to a "dinosaur."
While Shaboola did not have any calves in her life, Larouche says she was a star and would have visits with school groups and attendees at the zoo.
"She managed to touch so many people," said Larouche.
Éric Savage, a teacher of technology of mechanical engineering at Cégep de Granby, agrees that Shaboola left a legacy.
"I'm not saying she was a person, but she was very close, like for example, a family dog," said Savage.
"She was pampered and she lived much longer than they usually do."
He helped scan Shaboola's leg to create a 3D model used to mould a prosthetic support for her foot.
"The prosthesis would allow her to put some weight on the leg," said Savage. "It was very special."
Following Shaboola's passing, Granby Zoo says it's working on finding another companion for K.C.
It says the zoo is already in the process of bringing in two new females from an accredited American institution, as soon as this spring.
The white rhino is a species threatened with extinction in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
There are about 10,000 of the rhino species left in the world as the animal continues to be poached for its keratin horn — which is believed to have therapeutic and medicinal properties by some, the zoo says.