After 30 years as a well-loved animal at the UK's Colchester Zoo, visitors and staff were saddened when 41-year-old Simba, a white rhino, fell ill in April last year and had to be put down. But their grief soon turned to horror when Simba's horns turned up inside a fake antique sculpture seized at Manchester airport inJune, destined for the Chinese medicine market. A DNA profile from the horns had been obtained by scientists working on a new rhino DNA database called RhoDIS. Meanwhile, the UK customs authority contacted the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums to check for recent rhino deaths and learned of Simba's demise. His keepers had stored blood samples from medical checks, which provided the RhoDIS team with his DNA profile, and the database confirmed that the horns were his.
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