I was picked up by Chelsea at around 11:30 on Friday morning, we then made our way to Hluhluwe where we bought supplies before continuing to Nyalazi Gate, HIP.
Finding the camp we were staying at wasn’t difficult. With the help of a few HIP employees we found our way to the Game Capture HQ. After 5 mins Kate arrived to welcome us and show us where we would be staying for the next few days.
The tented camp was great, it had a communal kitchen/recreational area, bathrooms and braai area. We settled in, met the rest of the team and had a braai that evening. Throughout the weekend we were looked after well and made to feel very welcome. The staff responsible for the camp cooked us dinner in the evenings and kept our tents clean, for that I’m very grateful. Saturday we were invited to JP and Vanessas house for the rugby and a braai. The whole team was very welcoming. Thanks to them for inviting us into their homes. I’m also grateful for the experiences and knowledge the team shared with me over the weekend. It was a once in a life time experience.
I will now describe the morning activities of Saturday and Sunday and do my best to outline the dehorning process carried out by the game capture team and everyone involved. Chelsea and I would meet the team at the lab around 5:30am. From there we split up, Chelsea being in one team and me in another.
There were four teams operating in the field at once, namely team A,B,C and D. Each team would have 5/6 team members who had specific roles during the dehorning process, for example, different members were responsible for drug administration, horn removal, data recording, positioning of the rhino etc… At one time these four teams would either be doing a dehorning, being lifted to the next rhino or waiting to be lifted. It was go go go. Some data I was responsible for recording would be: horn length (both front and back lengths of posterior and anterior horns as well as their diameters at their base), width of the forehead, width of the tail, total length of the rhino, blood and fecal samples. We dehorned both white and black rhino, sometimes cow and calf at the same time.
It was interesting to see how the different species reacted after being woken up. White rhino were relatively calm and would often stumble off looking slightly dazed and confused. Back rhino however, needed to be handled with more caution. They woke up with a slightly fiery attitude, can you blame them. We had two helicopters operating with us, the person responsible for darting the rhinos would be in one while the other helicopter was responsible for scanning and lifting each team from rhino to rhino. Flying over the park was an amazing experience, the views were truly breathtaking.
On Saturday we also had the help of a drone operator who scanned areas with a thermal drone, he was then able to give us co-ordinates of animals to follow up on which sped up the process. Overall, I was stunned by how quick and efficient the dehorning process was. Some of them taking us around 7-10 mins to complete. We dehorned multiple rhinos on both Saturday and Sunday, I will not say the number but it was a lot. We would approach the rhino with caution, making sure the drugs were fully in effect. Once near the animal, we supported it, making sure it did not role over. Blind folds were put over the eyes and ear plugs were put in the ears, this is to reduce stimulation and calm the rhino. All samples and measurements were then taken and recorded. The horns would then be removed and bagged along with blood, fecal and hairs samples, to name a few.
Once we were ready to extract we would give the rhino the reversal drug and make our retreat. We’d pick a spot at a safe distance, where we monitored the drowsy rhino and waited to be airlifted to the next one.
What an incredible experience, A special thank you to African Wildlife Vets for their veterinary expertise and their vital role in making this important operation possible.
