A female rhino drowned at a zoo in the Netherlands as she was trying to escape the attentions of a male rhino introduced in her facility for mating, the Wildlands zoo announced on Friday.

Elena, one of the two female rhinos in the enclosure together with another named Zahra, was "startled" by the arrival of Limpopo, a 19-year-old white rhino who joined the park in early September from another Dutch zoo.

There, Limpopo had managed to successfully father three offspring as part of a European breeding program.

The zoo reported that the male rhino had already met other species within the zoo, such as zebras, wildebeest and giraffes, and the introduction went smoothly.

During this time, the female rhinos and Limpopo had got to know each other through different pens, smelling and seeing each other from a distance.

But things went wrong when Limpopo was finally introduced into the pen with Elena and Zahra. The two females were said to be "shocked" and started running away from him, and Limpopo gave chase.

Wildlands zoo said that "Limpopo committed the pursuit. He seemed particularly focused on Elena because she was the closest," reads a post on Facebook.

Both animals were apparently exhausted after 15 minutes of running and Elena walked towards a shallow water hole and slipped in, unable to get up again. 

Zoo caretakers removed Limpopo from the pen and tried to rescue Elena, but it was too late for the female rhino, who drowned.

"You want to jump over there and lift her head above water but you couldn't. Rhinos are not only very dangerous, but they also weigh almost 2,000 kilos," zoo vet Job Stumpel told the AD newspaper. 

"We raced to it with a shovel and chased the male away with it, so we could get to the female, but it was too late."

Limpopo had been moved from a German zoo six years ago because he "didn't treat the female there properly," the Brabants Dagblad newspaper said.

The zoo reported that it is unsure what will happen now to the breeding program of the facility.

_{Cover image:  Wildlands Zoo via Facebook}