The powerful story of a female rhino surviving a brazen attack by poachers at Tala Game Reserve, near Cato Ridge, and going on to produce two calves is touching, to say the least.
That touching became reality for mostly 8-year-old endangered-species-aware pupils from La Lucia Junior Primary School when they were able to feel mother Mpilo and her second calf, Muhle, last weekend.
“The skin is actually quite rough. It feels like you’re feeling a rock,” said Kaylah Pillay.
“Yes, it feels like a rock,” agreed Shakthi Rampersad.
Tamar Naidu placed her hand under Mpilo’s mouth: “It felt hot. It was breathing hot air onto my hand.”
Mpilo and Muhle had been sedated and the children were at Tala to witness the little one’s horn come off in its baptism into being poacher-proof and its previously dehorned mother get a trimming.
Their outing was a reward for having raised R70 000 for rhino and other wildlife conservation organisations, selling crocheted rhino toys supplied by volunteers from the Warriors for Wildlife non-profit organisation as well as their own crafts.
Teacher Jeanne Wilson has shared her passion about the rhino’s plight in assemblies and in class, both at La Lucia Junior Primary and her previous school, Winston Park Primary.
“When we talk about rhino, they equate them with dinosaurs. There is a fascination about animals becoming extinct and that a lot of them will cease to exist.
“Many are fascinated that dinosaurs roamed the earth and now they don’t roam the earth any more, as well as the dodo bird. That is the fascination: one moment the animals are here and the next moment they are gone.”
Wilson stressed that if this generation did not look after rhinos, “then the rhinos won’t be around”.
Mpilo, Muhle and Tala’s other rhino graze the rolling hills of the game reserve under 24-hour guard. It’s not an over-the-top arrangement given Mpilo’s close shave back in May 2014.
“People came here as guests and on a Saturday at around 10.30, drove up to them and darted at them. They actually corralled seven of them together. They managed to get three darts into the three of them. Two died instantly, from an overdose,” said Kerry Reed of the organisation Rave Rhino and Wildlife Project who, with her husband, Lawrence, is based at Tala to be near the rhino full-time.
She said Mpilo was spared because she had been hit on the hard part of the back, on the hump.
“So it didn’t go fully into her and she ran off. They then hit her with a bakkie and she landed up upside down in a ditch. That saved her life. All her organs weren’t compromised and that’s the only reason she survived.”
Reed said the poachers cut into Mpilo’s face and caused the growth plate of the horn to be deformed.
“Two of them were arrested, two or three years later, and given bail of R5 000, then vanished,” she lamented.
The children watched the darting from a distance, saw the sedated pair run over a hilltop until they dropped, stayed silent in spite of the excitement of being around the sleeping creatures, then watched them wake up and wander off, their 24-7 guards and guard dogs following in their wake.
Wildlife Solutions Africa vet Ryan van Deventer oversaw the process.
Nathan Olivier, 7, said he would remember the experience of watching the dehorning “for ever”.
Humans, dogs and rhino calves in orphanages are all beneficiaries of Warriors for Wildlife’s knitwear, including blankets, beanies, scarves and fingerless gloves that can be worn while handling a dart gun.
“How can I not keep crocheting if my wool wants to cuddle my fingers?” chirped the organisation’s Julia Nicholson, who handed over donations during the school’s visit.
The kids sang a version of “We Are The World” that went “there are rhinos dying; if you care enough for the living; make a better place for you and for me”.
The Independent on Saturday