violette

EXCLUSIVE: Night safari zookeeper says rhino not to be blamed for attack
I miss Quilon
I can't wait to get back to work
By Joel Chan
November 07, 2006 Print Ready Email Article

IT'S not the rhinoceros' fault. It reacted instinctively to protect itself.
That's what zookeeper Ernie Ismail, 24, feels about her frightening ordeal.

In an exclusive interview with The New Paper last Thursday, she recounted how Quilon, a two-tonne rhino charged at her, knocked her down and nibbled her shoulder at the Night Safari.

She said she spotted camera flashes being triggered before the attack.

--Joel Chan

'Quilon didn't actually bite me,' she said. She said after she was floored by the rhino, it nibbled her left shoulder.

'It crossed my mind that it could have got much worse because I could feel his lips and teeth on my shoulder. So I was very relieved when it was over.'

The incident left her with a broken left thigh bone and abrasions on her left shoulder.

But the pint-sized lady - she's all of 1.5m tall - is keen to resume work.

'I can't wait to get back to work,' said Miss Ernie, who returned to the Night Safari for the first time after the incident for the interview.

There, she joked with her colleagues when they helped push her on her wheelchair.

So does she miss Quilon?

'Of course.'

She has been working with Night Safari since 2002 and caring for Quilon for over a year.

She used to also look after other animals on the Fishing Cat Trail such as mousedeer, binturong and fishing cats.

FLASHBACKS

She says she still suffers flashbacks of the incident, though not as often.

'After I was released from the hospital five days later, I had about one flashback each day.

'I could see the rhino charging at me and I would quickly wake up. It felt like the whole incident was really happening.'

She is touched that her colleagues jumped in to rescue her. They haven't spoken about the incident since but visited her at the hospital and at home.

Doctors at Tan Tock Seng Hospital told Miss Ernie, the youngest child in a family of four, that recovery would take three to six months.

Her left thigh bone 'broke into two and the doctors straightened it with a titanium plate and 11 screws'.

She added: 'The surgery was supposed to take two hours, but it took much longer that day. They couldn't find the right screws because my bones were too small.'

She said she had tried to avoid alarming her mother, by calling her aunt from the ambulance after the 'small accident'.

Her mother only found out what happened and the extent of her injuries when she visited her in hospital later.

'She was in tears when she saw me. She's still worried about me going back to work at the safari,' said Miss Ernie.

Mr Kumar Pillai, 54, the assistant director of zoology at the Night Safari, said investigations revealed that it was a camera flash which caused the rhino to attack.

Said Mr Pillai: 'The zookeeper has been carrying out the same routine which we have for the last 10 years.

'There were no incidents prior to this and Quilon has no record of trouble or aggressive behaviour.

'The flashes must have spooked him. The way I look at it, it was more of a defensive rather than an aggressive reaction from him.

'Greater Asian rhinos can give very nasty bites, but he nudged her (Miss Ernie) instead.'

Quilon was born in the Basel Zoo in Switzerland in 1993 and has been on loan to the Night Safari since 1995.

Mr Pillai urged visitors not to use flash photography at the Night Safari.

He said: 'The flashes blind the animal. It becomes a situation where the animal doesn't know what to do because it can't see.

'There are incidences when animals stopped feeding and retreated into dark and safe places when flashes are triggered.'

Mr Pillai said after the incident, two keepers now attend to the feeding session and they do not enter the exhibit.

'One throws the food in from the keepers' path (located at the side of the exhibit), while another keeps an eye on the rhino.

'We are also placing more signages about flash photography and making more frequent announcements.'

The New Paper visited the Night Safari last Thursday. It was bustling as usual.

During the 'Creatures of The Night Show' at the amphitheatre, presenter Sujata took great pains to make 'no flash' announcements in as many as eight languages at the start of the show.

Still, a flash went off and Miss Sujata had to politely remind the visitor not to use it.

THE RHINO MYTH

Are rhinos menacing beasts that charge at the mere sight of humans, like what we see in movies?

A recent paper by Dr Michael Hutchins and Dr Michael Kreger of the US, said wild rhinos tend to flee upon detecting the presence of humans.

Dr Hutchins, the executive director of The Wildlife Society and a professor at the University of Maryland, told The New Paper: 'Under the right conditions, captive rhinos can get accustomed to humans to a certain extent if the the stimuli is non-threatening.

'Even wild-caught rhinos will adapt quite readily to good care and bond with their caretakers.'

Dr MS Thayaparan, a programme officer at SOS Rhino, an international foundation dedicated to rhino conservation, told The New Paper: 'Rhinos are not necessarily aggressive animals, particularly the Asian species.

'Captive born-and-bred rhinos can become affectionate by coming closer to people.'

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...16893,00.html?

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.phoenixity.

animals never attack unless provoked. never blame them.

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Woud you lie with me and just forget the world? ♥


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fuyumi

Yeah. Luckily she's alright.

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violette

ya lor, heng arr...

yes... same like humans mah

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patrina

itchy hands :notimpressed2:

violette

who itchy hands?? lol

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huishan

gosh .. i think the rhino was
provoked by . but .. shes real brave .
if for normal gers to get unjuried
so badly at the workin place , i doubt
we will go back there to work . phobia ~!

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