Rhino Capture for Relocation

On Wednesday the 5th of May I was given together with six other students from Sondela the chance to help capture Rhinos. We helped capture four white rhinos; a bull two cows and a calf. the process went as follows:

• the vet prepared the darts beforehand
• he also made sure that there was enough fuel in the helicopter
  
• he then locates the rhinos with a helicopter
• then he informs the truck driver where the rhinos are
• when the truck is close enough the vet darts the rhino with a sleeping muti
  
• as soon as the rhino lies down we run to put a blindfold on the rhino this helps the rhino keep calm. rhinos stress easily and that can cause them to overheat
• we pour water over the rhino to help keep its body temperature down
  
• and a wake-up muti is injected
• the rhino is then inspected for any injuries it might have sustained in the fall
  
• we tie a rope around its snout just behind the horn (a thick rope)
  
• and another on the one hind leg (they call this the break rope)
• then carefully the rhino is lead into the truck this in itself is a series of steps
• one or two people take the front rope and move in the direction of the truck opening pulling all the while
• someone is on the "break rope" to prevent the rhino from moving too fast and hurting itself or the people handling it
  
• the rest have to help heave the rhino onto its legs and then support it while it stumbles to the truck.
  

We had to be really fast. The ground was sopping wet and made running really difficult, but run we had to. The whole process had to go super fast because the sooner the rhino is calm the less chance there is for something to go wrong.

Even though this it only one of the many animals I will need to learn to capture I still learnt so much. The importance of the animals well being for example, you need to know the age of the rhino (or which ever animal you are capturing) the age really affects the way the animal reacts to everything; the darting,the closeness to humans, the noise level, and if they are really small, the parent. The next thing is the animal size; this is one of the factors used to determine the age of the animal, and also the measurement as to how much sedative etc.- you need to inject into the animal. You need to know the history of the animal, is this the first time this animal is being relocated?
When the animal has been caught we check weather it has a micro identification chip, if it doesn't have one, then one is inserted by the vet into the hump. The number on the chip is then recorded and registered on an international database.The White gadget is the chip reader.

The differences between a White rhino and a Black rhino. The White rhino has a very prominent hump and the Black rhino hasn't. The Black rhino has a pointed tip at the end of its front top lip this is used-much in the same way an elephant uses its trunk-for ripping off leaves and green twigs from trees and shrubs. The White rhinos name is derived from the Dutch word "wyd" which means "wide". This is because it is a grazer the wide mouth making it easier to munch off grass. And last but not least the White rhino is much larger than the black rhino.