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Location: |
Africa - Southern Africa - Namibia |
Subject: |
Management |
Species: |
Black Rhino |
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June Owen Smith called from Wereldsend that another rhino cow had been shot leaving a small calf orphaned which was now in her care. I arrived late in the evening. In the morning I found June giving the calf the early morning feed. The wounds that the jackals had inflicted had been fairly bad but June had done a marvellous job of cleaning up the worst of it. I took care of the baby. She was a delightful ward. I took her waling mornings and evenings, I learnt as much if not more in those few days than in nine months of intensive observations. I also learnt that little rhinos need plenty of communicative touching and affection. Probably due to poor eyesight, she relied upon a continual vocal communication uttering a sort of huff-puff or plaintive 'meeow' which had to be answered. If I walked too fast she'd break into a very agile trot with tail up and almost bowl me over if I didn't hop out of the way in time. On the sixth day the Dept of Nature Conservation removed her to Etosha.
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