A Modern Day War

There is a new war, a war against poaching. It is a war to protect Africa’s greatest asset, our animals, and it requires tactics and equipment never before needed.

- Reuben Van Niekerk

We are at an undisclosed location, getting ready to witness the darting, data collection and micro-chipping of a pair of rhino.

A convoy of bakkies is ready to go and a Bell Jetranger hovers overhead. The call comes over the radio that a rhino has been spotted and the helicopter leads the way. The rhino is darted from the air and followed until it comes to rest.

I thought that looking for a rhino in thick bush would be a time-consuming exercise but clearly, if you know where to look, they are not that difficult to find from the air.

As the ground team nears the site of the helicopter, we quickly realise the rhino has come to a standstill in an area covered by thick shrubbery. We leg it on foot for a few hundred metres until we catch up to the little guy.

The rhino has put his head in the nearest bush. This needs to be cleared quickly with the chainsaw so he can lie down comfortably. It is organised chaos but everyone knows what to do. The sedated rhino is a 15-month-old calf, which is the minimum age at which they can be safely sedated.

The rangers and veterinary staff work frantically – they can’t keep this little one sedated for too long – and there are several things that need to be done. The dart is removed and the wound treated with antibiotics, blood is taken to do a health check and also to aid in the building of a rhino DNA database. A microchip is placed under the skin, much the same as that which is used in domestic animals. Next up, a small tracker is placed on the animal so that he can be found by the friendlies more easily and checked up on every so often. Lastly, the ears are notched according to a numbering system that allows the staff in this reserve to keep tabs on the animals.

The notches are visible from a distance and rangers keep a record of which rhino were spotted, to ensure all rhino are seen every couple of days.