Bere, R.M., 1966. Wild animals in an African national park. London, Andre Deutsch, pp. 1-96
|
|
|
|
| |
| Location: |
Africa - Eastern Africa - Uganda |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Records |
| Species: |
White Rhino |
 |
|
The white rhino is one of the rarest animals in the world; so it was decided to try and move a few to the Murchison Falls Park before they were all exterminated.
Catching and transport were not the only problems. Would the rhinos eat the grass which was growing in the Park? How would the white rhino and the black rhino get along together? If the white rhinos could be caught and moved, would they stay in the Park, where they were put, or would they wander away?
The grass was found to be suitable, and it was learned from South Africa that the black and white rhinos live side by side, in one of the reserves, with hardly any friction. Whether they would stay in the Murchison Falls Park could only be discovered by experience.
Ten white rhinos were caught by a team of experienced animalcatchers. They worked from a truck, catching one animal at a time. First they drove alongside, then slipped a noose over the head, and finally secured the legs with a rope. The rhino was then lifted on to a lorry by means of a winch, and moved to a prepared stockade at the catching camp. In the stockade the captured rhinos soon settled down, taking food and water within a few hours. Some days later each one had to be persuaded into its own travelling crate and moved to the Murchison Falls Park (a distance of two hundred miles by road) where the Warden was ready to receive them.
The first rhinos to arrive were a mother and her calf, which had travelled in separate crates. The cow moved out cautiously with her tail curled up tightly like a pig's. She stood under a tree for a few minutes and then walked off into the bush. The rhino calf was released immediately afterwards. First it circled the lorry rather suspiciously. Then it called to its mother in a husky voice, rather like the greeting whinny of a horse. The cow heard the call and replied. The animals walked towards each other; and, as soon as they were again united, they trotted off together in the direction of the Nile. Their recent astonishing adventures might have been part of their normal lives.
The rest of the move went off equally well, though two of the ten animals died soon after arrival, probably because of some internal damage suffered during capture. One of them was a cow, whose very young calf the Warden adopted and tained. Christened Obongi, after the place where it was born, the little rhino soon became a great favourite with the staff and visitors to the Park. Obongi is now well grown, but has remained both tame and friendly.
The remaining white rhinos seem to have accepted their new home; and another small importation has already taken place. If twenty of these rare animals can be safely established in the Park, they should be able to form a small breeding colony in a place ,,vliere they will always be secure.
|
|
|
Wild animals in an African national park
File available
details
Original text on this topic: