Zookeepers lock horns with moving rhino in Stirlingshire

That was the conundrum for zookeepers who had the challenge of moving the one-tonne rhino from its Scottish base all the way to the Netherlands.

The three-year-old southern white rhino was due to be transferred to a zoo on the continent from Blair Drummond Safari Park as part of a Europe-wide breeding programme.

But staff at the Stirlingshire park had the challenge of luring the rhino from her enclosure on to a lorry, so she could be taken on a 20-hour journey via a ferry to Holland.

Keepers chose to overcome the problem of moving the enormous animal by exploiting her weakness for food.

For a week before her departure date they put a crate in her enclosure, and tempted her inside with tasty hay so she lost any fear of the contraption. By the time it came for her to be loaded in the crate on to a lorry she just walked straight inside.

A crane was then used to lift up the three-tonne wood and metal crate and its one-tonne occupant. She left the park in a lorry bound for Newcastle on Thursday and caught an overnight ferry to Holland.

She is at Beekse Bergen safari park in the Netherlands where she will eventually be introduced to a potential mate.

Safari Park manager Gary Gilmour said: "Everything went smoothly. She was very calm all through the operation and didn't bat an eyelid when she was lifted with the crane on to the back of the truck."