The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Saturday, October 24, 1992 —Dodging granite peaks, brushing tree tops, and sweeping low over open vleis, a helicopter gently herds two rhino into an open patch of the Matopo National Park…

Following the rhino closely, veterinarian Peter Morkel leans out of the open door of the helicopter and fires his dart gun.

Thirty minutes later another rhino is waking up, somewhat bewildered, and minus both his horns. Since July this year more than a hundred black and white rhino have been in the Hwange National Park, and this week, the team, led by Dr Mike Kock, started work in the Matopos area, where they expect to have dehorned the entire rhino population by early next week.

Dr Kock said that the Matopos had become a priority area as it had a substantial population of rhino, which, unless dehorned, would soon be attracting the attention of poachers.

The team doing the dehorning is highly experienced and efficient, and as soon as the full effects of the immobilising drug have taken place and the rhino has collapsed, measurements are taken of the horns, blood samples are drawn, and temperature and pulse rates are noted.

A monitoring unit is plugged onto the animal’s ear lobe, to keep the team informed about its condition, and a blindfold is placed around the eyes.

Then the chain saw is started up and for the next 10 minutes or so the kopjes echo to the buzz of the saw, and rhino horn shavings litter the ground. The horns are cut at the base, and the stumps neatly reamed and painted with disinfectant.

The rhino is then injected with the antinode and within a couple of minutes is standing up, a little dazed perhaps, but safe, at least for the time being, from the poachers’ bullet.

No-one knows what the long-term effects of depriving a rhino of his horn are, but Zimbabwe’s hornless rhino, a symbol of man’s greed and vanity are, thanks to some generous donors, being given a fighting chance at survival.