NEW ‘MOMS’ FOR RHINO ORPHANS
Lotti, Lolli and other calves are lucky to have landed in a centre that will get them ready to go back into the wild
WHEN they found her she had tear tracks on her face and had been sitting next to her dead mother alone in the veld for two days. The traumatised little animal had probably seen and heard everything: the gunshot, the smell of her mom’s blood and the voices of the poachers sawing off her mom’s horn to sell to a smuggling syndicate.
The sound of rhino calf Lotti’s mournful lament was broadcast by international TV channel Sky News, once more focusing attention on the brutality of rhino poaching.
Lotti’s story could easily have ended in the veld next to her mom’s carcass. She’d been without milk for two days and was in severe distress.
But thanks to her guardian angels at The Rhino Orphanage in Limpopo, Lotti is plump and healthy six months after the trauma.
We watch as she frolics in the play encampment with another white rhino calf, Lolli (10 months). The two lovingly rub their heads together, then find a sunny spot in which to lie down for a nap.
“Each young rhino here has a sad story,” says Arrie van Deventer, who started the rhino rehabilitation centre. He points at Thula (22 months), who was blinded by a poacher’s bullet. The scar on her back was caused by the same bullet that killed her mom.
But the centre is also a place of happy endings where orphans such as Lotti and Lolli are rehabilitated with the aim of releasing them back into the wild – either in a nature reserve or on a private game farm.
It’s a necessary intervention: the demand for illegal rhino horn in parts of Asia and the Middle East, where it’s used in traditional medicine, seems to be insatiable. In 2017 alone, 1 028 rhinos were poached in South Africa, according to statistics released by the department of environmental affairs.
“One person and one organisation will never win this war,” Arrie (65) says.
But to him and the people who work with him, each saved calf is an important victory. “The rhinos need to be prepared for living and breeding freely. That way each animal can contribute to the continuation of the species.”
SECURITY guards with dogs patrol the rehabilitation centre – they’re the rhinos’ bodyguards, Arrie explains. For security reasons he doesn’t want to disclose how many calves are cared for here. They’re never left alone, he says.
Arrie has been running the centre for six years and is entirely dependent on donations to cover the salaries of permanent staff, feed for the animals and vet’s fees. Volunteers also help care for the animals.
And it’s not just rhinos that call the centre home – Arrie finds it difficult to say no if he gets a call about any kind of baby animal in need. As a result he and his staff care for sable antelope calves, a zebra, horses and two buffaloes. “We’ve had everything from a tiny bushbaby to a baby elephant here,” Arrie says.
At lunchtime the centre is a hive of activity. We walk among the enclosures where the rhino calves are grunting for their milk.
When they spot Zanré van Jaarsveld, one of the volunteer “matrons” who care for the orphans, heading towards them with her arms full of milk bottles, the calves trot towards her in anticipation. Then there’s a contented silence as each calf sucks on a two-litre cooldrink bottle full of milk.
Within minutes the bottles are empty and the calves beg for more.
“They’re just like kids and will throw a temper tantrum if they don’t get their way,” Zanré (23) says, laughing. “We call it milk rage.”
She explains the rhino calves are fed a special mixture of fat-free cow’s milk, brown rice and other supplements. The amount depends on the animal’s age and weight.
Zanré has been working here for more than a year along with four foreign volunteers.
We’re warned not to touch the rhinos while they’re eating as they’re wary of strangers. And the tamer they get the harder it will be to reintroduce them into the wild, which is why the centre isn’t open to the public.
Rhinos that are successfully rehabilitated are reintroduced into the wild at age four or five.
Arrie’s work with rhinos started with a call from his neighbour about a frightened rhino calf whose mom had been hunted by poachers. Arrie and his wife, Marietjie, were established wildlife breeders at the time.
He started making phone calls in the hope of finding someone who could save the calf but had no luck. So he rounded up the calf himself and raised it at his house – and that’s how he found his passion.
Through donations and sponsorships Arrie was able to build the centre from the ground up.
Routine is important. The orphans are fed every three hours. And every afternoon at 4pm they’re taken for walks in the veld with their matrons – always under the watchful eye of security guards.
After their walk it’s time for the last feed of the day, then they’re taken to their sleeping pens accompanied by the security guards.
Each rhino has a distinct personality and the animals are super-intelligent, Arrie says. The matrons and volunteers have to be passionate “because it’s incredibly hard work – the calves need 24/7 care, just like human babies”.
T‘They’re just like kids and throw a tantrum if they don’t get their way’
HE saddest part of Arrie’s work is how often new rhino orphans are brought here. “Some are just a day old.”
And not all of them can be released back into the wild. Thula, for example, will spend the rest of her life in the centre. She lost one eye and has no sight in the other because of the bullet wound.
To Arrie it’s a miracle she survived at all – she stopped breathing in the operating theatre. She was just a few hours old when her mom was shot and killed and she was wounded.
Thula’s “eyes” are Nenkani, another orphaned calf. He doesn’t leave Thula’s side and he’ll also spend his life here. “It’s like an arranged marriage,” Arrie quips.
We walk back to where Lotti and Lolli are playing in their enclosure. Zanré makes noises with her mouth and runs from one side of the camp to the other, the calves in tow.
“She’s speaking rhino to them,” Arrie says. Then the two baby rhinos rub up against Zanré for a flank scratch. They each stretch out a back leg in pleasure, shut their eyes and fall down on their sides.
There’s hope these two will one day be living their best rhino lives in the wild, contributing to the continuation of their species. And it’s all thanks to the labour of love performed by people like Arrie and Zanré, who are devoting their lives to saving the rhino – one calf at a time.