RHINO DE-HORNING – A SAD STORY

The helicopter taking off..

It was early one morning when the sky was just turning red with the rising sun.  The nocturnal animals were giving their final call for the night and the birds singing in a new day, when the peace was disturbed by the noise of a helicopter coming in to land.  The pilot and two vets alighted from the machine and came over to ask if we were interested in witnessing the de-horning of a rhino.  We all readily agreed.

                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                                                    

Poaching of rhino got to epidemic proportions in the early 1900’s mainly by poachers hacking off the horns and selling them to the Far East for exorbitant prices for several uses including: an alleged remedy against fever, gout, rheumatism, and many other non life threatening ailments, an alleged cure against aggressive cancer, ornamental use, an aphrodisiac (this is denied by the Chinese themselves), and Yambiya handles in Yemen. Amid  controversy it was decided that having this valuable horn going around on four legs was not easy for National Parks anti-poaching teams to protect, so was decided that by de-horning the rhino there would be a better chance of the survival of these prehistoric beasts.

We were given a two-way radio so that we could communicate with the pilot, and he could inform us as to where to go.  With a whirr of the blades and a cloud of dust the helicopter took off, so we all rushed off and grabbed cameras and hats and piled into the vehicle and headed in the direction that we were given, down one of the two lane tracks, with our hearts hammering not sure what to expect. 

The pilot suddenly informed us that they had located a large male rhino and gave us direction, so we then headed off the tracks and ‘bundu bashed’ through thick vegetation until we arrived at the location.  By the time that we arrived one of the vets had already darted the rhino from the helicopter and he was lying peacefully on the ground unaware of what was about to happen to his masculinity, they had placed a cloth over his eyes for protection from the sun.  The vets were busy measuring the beast, checking his blood and checking his heart rate.  All of a sudden the National Parks vet started up the chain saw and started sawing off the sleeping patient’s horn.  The smell was horrendous, as it smelt like burnt nails.  The team worked exceptionally fast even though to us it seemed to take forever listening to the sawing and smelling the horn.  The National Parks Scouts then painted a number on his side and he was tagged in the ear.  We all then had to clear out and get to the safety of our vehicles while the vet gave an anti-dote for the rhino to wake up.



Checking the heart

Sawing off the horn

Putting tar on the after the horn taken off

Number the rhino

Measuring the anti-dote





Unfortunately, by de-horning as many rhino as they could it did not really help the population, as the poachers continued slaughtering the rhino and instead of a horn now they hacked off the tagged ear to given to their dealers to prove that the rhino has been de-horned and maybe they would still get some money for their efforts, and also if a de-horned rhino was killed, bit would save time in tracking these hornless mammals.  Poachers are prepared to remove any amount of horns, including the small stubs on rhino calves, and therefore dehorning is unlikely to be an adequate deterrent. Dehorning will only reduce the temptation to potential poachers if the re‐growth is cut regularly to ensure that the horn mass remains very low. Zimbabwe reported that their dehorning effort was successful, but only if used in conjunction with traditional anti‐poaching measures such as regular patrols and population monitoring. Where we used to going out and seeing a rhino every day, it got down to you being lucky if we saw one at all!!

 

                                                                             The Team