Indian Rhino at Montgomery Zoo died of sand colic

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Officials at the Montgomery Zoo say a necropsy reveals that a 12-year-old Indian Rhinoceros died of sand colic, which occurs when sand is ingested and accumulates in the large intestine.

The rhino, Jeta, had lived at the zoo for seven years before it died Nov. 20.

Jeta's baby, Ethan, had died in October.

The Montgomery Advertiser reports that laboratories were unable to determine what caused Ethan's death.

Zoo officials have said that Ethan was the first Indian Rhinoceros calf conceived through artificial insemination to be born in the U.S. Ethan was named after the south Alabama boy who was pulled from a bus and held hostage in an underground bunker last year.

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