Posted on 05 Apr 2013:
On Sunday 31 March 2013, in the afternoon, an injured rhino was called in. The Pilanesberg National Park authorities were notified. Early on the 1 April 2013 the vet, Johan, drove to the Pilanesberg while the helicopter pilot Nico Jacobs flew here.
Once everyone met at the Park Admin office it was decided that Johan and Mike Crowther (Park Operations Manager) would fly with the helicopter to the site of the injured Rhino. The rest of the crew, including Steve Dell (Field Ecologist) and Charlotte Marais (Copenhagen Zoo Researcher), drove to the spot.
The rhino was soon found and the Vet darted her from the air. The ground crew raced to the scene with all the needed equipment like drills to put in a micro chip, a chip reader to make sure the chip is active.
The rhino went down quickly after the dart was in and Johan got to work. The injury she had sustained came from another rhino that had put its horn into her and she now had a prolapsed rectum. The whole area of the injury was very, very swollen but the wound was quite fresh luckily so there was no rotting flesh yet .
Johan also decided the rhino looked very pregnant and this was a concern as the area of the injury would be seriously impacted on while giving birth.
While Johan was treating the wound the rest of the ecological team did the ear notchings, horn chipping and DNA material collection, all for identification purposes in the future. The whole procedure took under 30 minutes with all hands keeping the rhino wet so that she would keep cool while under the anesthetic.
Once all the work was done the team left the area and Johan gave the rhino the reversal drug which woke her fast.
We were all standing a distance away from the rhino at this time for safety sake. Nonetheless she actually walked over to us very calmly, looked at us as if to say "Thank you". then she turned and disappeared into the bush.
That was just over 3 weeks ago.
Tuesday 16 April 2013 we heard that this Rhino had had a calf! Her wound has healed nicely from what could be seen by Charlotte Marais who does Rhino Research in Pilanesberg for the Copehagen Zoo and was the first to see Mum and baby. (The Copenhagen Zoo is a very active financial supporter of the Pilanesberg).
The images of the mommy rhino and her calf that you see here were taken by Charlotte Maris - thanks Charlotte!
Posted on Pilanesberg National Park & Wildlife Trust FB page on 29 April, 2013:
Another young female rhino injured by a bull rhino! What's with these rhino. She was darted and treated and we hope for the best as the bulls horn did some serious damage!
