Rhino Orphanage by Rita Shaw
While it is always a breeze and a pleasure booking my African travel through Hartley’s Safaris, my current trip (August 2015) included an afternoon, which was especially incredible and special to me!I was extremely privileged to be able to visit a rhino orphanage, which is not open to the public for fairly obvious reasons in this time of rabid poaching in South Africa.
A little background information – the largest earth-based animals are herbivores, i.e. elephants and rhinos. Yet it is the elephants and rhinos that are being targeted by poachers for their tusks and horns. Huge numbers of pangolins, lions and other animals are also being killed by poachers.
This epidemic is growing exponentially, due to the enormous demand emanating from some Asian countries. I am not going to rant and rave about this dire situation here, except to say that I am definitely not looking forward to the day when it is announced that all species of rhinos are extinct!
I fully endorse all reasonable measures that are being made to stop the poaching. Whether it is money, time, ideas, editing/proofreading, moral support or anything else I can contribute, I will continue to help however I can! The only thing that is important in life IS life! Nothing else matters!!
On arrival at the orphanage, I was greeted by Gaby, one of the managers, and spent the next couple of hours with her and some of the other employees/volunteers. One of the girls even lives about five minutes from my home in Sydney, Australia.
Gaby first took me to meet the three youngest orphaned white rhinos. The two boys and one girl share an enclosure during the day, where they are fed or can sleep, basically doing whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it. They also share night quarters, where they can cuddle up to each other for comfort as they sleep, safely away from any poachers. Dedicated night staff keep an eye on them as they sleep.
I also got to meet two slightly older white rhinos and a black rhino, who share another enclosure – they are free to venture out through the open gate to take a walk in a large open area where they can also meet up with rhinos from other enclosures within the orphanage. They tend to walk back into their own enclosure when they want some food or a pat/scratch from the staff (or me on that day).
The older rhinos have been weaned but the three babies, about 6 – 8 months old, are still dependent on milk. I watched the girls making up the formula, which includes cooked/liquified brown rice, colostrum and some other “goodies”, mixed with milk. A white board indicates amounts of each item and the bottles are appropriately labeled with the rhinos’ names so there can be no confusion.
Two of the youngsters are bottle-fed 3-4 times a day, but the newest member of the trio prefers to drink his milk from a tray as he is a bit skittish around people – possibly a reminder of the trauma he acquired from watching the death of his mother at the hands of poachers.
I was allowed to feed the female baby – this was quite a balancing act, as she sucks really hard on the teat and you have to roll back the edge of the teat to allow air in, while trying not to roll it off the end of the bottle.
The orphanage is supported by donations from corporations and individuals as well as money from the game farms, which actually own the rhinos. Once old enough and independent, the rhinos are usually returned to those game farms or to nearby game reserves where they can live a normal rhino life.
A million thanks to Gaby from the orphanage and to Natalie and Jann from Hartley’s for enabling me to have this precious time with my favorite “rhino people”! And I am sure that Hartley’s would be happy to forward any donations to the orphanage on your behalf …