World Rhino Day: Rhino gets 'life-changing' eye surgery at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo

A rhino underwent “life-changing” eye surgery at a British zoo to mark World Rhino Day.

ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, shared footage of Hugo, a 19-year-old greater one-horned rhino, having cataracts removed.

The one-and-a-half-ton rhino had to be tranquillized with an anaesthetic dart “strong enough to kill 14 people,” the zoo said.

Hugo’s lenses were discovered to have gone cloudy after keepers spotted him bumping into logs and other objects in his paddock.

The zoo called on specialist veterinary ophthalmologist, Claudia Hartley, to perform cataract surgery – the first time the procedure had ever been performed on the species at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo.