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TEARS OF RHINO IN SOUTH AFRICA
By: Phung My Trung (Vncreatures.net) and Dang Linh Huong (Traffic)
Part I: Greetings, beautiful South Africa !
Part II: Live capturing rhino for … protection
Part III: Rhino releasing…
Part IV: Tears of rhino or human crime
Part IV: A shameful misleading belief
RHINO RELEASING…
After “taking care” of captured black rhino individuals at iMoflozi – a state managed game reserve, we prepared for the return trip to come back to other game reserves to release these huge animals to their new habitat.
On the way to the other game reserve, we stopped by a ranger station of iMfolozi game reserve located in a middle of a huge desert. Head of the station, Ian Pollard took us for a tour around the station and warehouse stocking poachers’ equipment that has been seized during the last 10 years. Each time he showed us the bullet holes on the skull of killed rhinos, his eyes indicated the sadness and sympathy for the poor faiths of these prehistoric and peaceful animals that are considered as the national symbol of South Africa.
In South Africa, for a ranger, the salary of USD1,000/month is not considered as a high one in comparison with the life-threatened danger and hard work that he/she has to deal with. However, whenever talking about their job, South African rangers are all proud and pride of their dedication. To them, ranger is very special kind of job since not only they can live on the land that their Zulu ancestor lived and fought for but also can protect wildlife that had been the source for food for generations of Zulu tribe people.
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Reversed capturing…
After spending three hours of travelling by car, we arrived at the game reserve when it was getting dark. The cold of desert at night came right after the last daylight went down. Today, all visitors of this private game reserve had a chance to witness an important event: Black rhinos are released into the game reserve.
Two special guesses for this event were the Zulu tribal leader and his wife representing the local people. People gathered at a large and clear area to witness that moment. While visitors from Southeast Asia were chilled due to the hard cold weather, the special vehicle carrying rhinos that were “taken care” during the afternoon slowly approached and the reverse procedures started.
Releasing rhino is a difficult and dangerous work since black rhino is tons in weight, extremely more aggressive than white rhino. Furthermore, after being shot by tranquilizer gun and caged in iron tank for hundred-kilometer-or-more travelling, black rhino is becoming way more aggressive.
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Every step of procedures needs to be conducted in a quick and professional manner. After injecting drug for rhino in the iron tank, conservation workers have only 2 minutes to open the tank while the rhino is still fully awake and aggressive. Veterinarian has to calculate exactly by second, as soon as the rhino walks out of the tank within 10 steps, he should be drugged and go down. One big and strong rope will be tightened around the back leg and two others around his chest. The ropes are held by 5-6 staff on each side to prevent any unexpected thing might happen, such as rhino gets loose and runs free. Observers have to stand away at least 20 meters behind the boundary line set up by conservation workers who are ready to deal with any incident that may happen.
It was probably the 1001st time of releasing rhino for South African conservation workers since everything went smoothly as planned. According to the traditional custom of Zulu tribe, it is a good luck for anyone who can touch a living rhino. Therefore, as soon as the OK signal was received, people orderly lined up and approached the rhino to touch on the warm, thick, and dry skin as well as the prideful horn of that rhino.
Incident at the twilight
It’s 10°C when we returned to our lodge in the game reserve at 2 a.m in the morning. The lodge buffet that was prepared and ready in the early evening went cold but people were still happy to enjoy with some traditional wines from local Zulu indigenous to celebrate the success of capturing and releasing rhino.
At the twilight, we were woken up from a deep sleep by the noise of vehicle motors and people calling at each other. It was 5 a.m. I ran out of my tent and met Simon, a conservation worker who told me that there was a released black rhino escaped from the electric wire of the game reserve and was heading to resident area. I quickly grasped my camera and my coat then jumped onto Simon’s car. The car moved so fast and radio in the car kept informing us that the escaped rhino was a male and very strong. His current location was about 20km away from the game reserve. The signal sent from the microchip in the rhino horn showed exact location of the rhino on Simon’s handheld GPS.
When we arrived at the scene, it was daylight then we could easily spot the rhino was running on the field. Conservation workers went around to stop him from the other side with the 50 meters safe distance.
Finally, that rhino was cornered to a dry grass field with several domestic cattle. The rhino chased all cattle running widely in panic. People patiently waited for him to calm down and called for air support to give tranquilizer shot.
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Nice impression in South Africa
While being chased to location where the specialized vehicle could move in, the black rhino ran straight to the highway and suddenly it stopped at the middle of the road, challenging everyone. Conservation workers divided into two groups at the two sides of the highway, signaled every travelling vehicle to stop. Amazingly, all kind of vehicles, from trucks, vans to sedan cars stopped immediately after seeing the signal from conservation workers. They all turned off the engines, tried to reduce the noise to make the rhino being more aggressive. The line of vehicles lasted for kilometers from both sides of the highway in an orderly fashion without any intervention of traffic police force. They stayed patiently in their cars waiting for conservation workers to conduct their work.
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Especially, a 50-cart train also stopped right after receiving the signal. This was so surprising thing to us since in Viet Nam, conservation workers have not had the right to stop any moving vehicle when they are on duty.
South African drivers did not complain nor honk,… they also did not do anything to startle the aggressive black rhino. Finally, the stubborn rhino went down after a tranquilizer shot. Conservation workers decided to release him into Boma – one kind of livestock enclosure that is built in the middle of the game reserve to raise wild and aggressive or young animals that their mother or farther were killed and they could not live by themselves. Living in Boma for a while, they will gradually get used to the new habitat before being released into the wild.
On the way home, I was filled with the respectful and appreciation for South African people, especially truck and train drivers who had high awareness and attitude to preserve the national symbolic animal.
Box:
According to the most recent statistics issued by TRAFFIC in 2012: “South Africa now conserves 18,800 white rhinos Ceratotherium simum, which represents nearly 95% of Africa’s total White Rhino population. White Rhino is now listed in the IUCN Red List’s Near Threatened category. However, the rhino poaching crisis in South Africa is gradually wiping out the Black Rhinoceros Diceros bicornis population in this country. The estimated 100,000 Black Rhinos in Africa in 1960, prior to the first catastrophic rhino poaching crisis, were nearly wiped out and plummeted to just 2,410 animals by 1995. Over the last 10 years, thanks to the continued efforts made by the government of South Africa and international organizations, the total black rhino population has been increasing dramatically (about 5,000 individuals in 2013).
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