This November, we supported the Zululand Conservation Trust’s rhino conservation work on Manyoni Private Game Reserve.

In late November/ early December, game reserves typically see a sharp increase in the number of poaching incidents, as poachers are financially motivated going into the holiday season. It’s a difficult time of year for conservation teams  - while the rest of the world winds down into holiday mode, anti-poaching scouts and reserve managers face long hours and dangerous encounters.

With Manyoni facing this rising poaching risk, we jumped into action with the Zululand Conservation Trust to trim the horns of the last few black and white rhino that needed attention. We were joined in the field by Julie and Gary, travelling from the USA on safari with Wild Wonderful World. The reserve used a drone to search for rhinos and then once located, the helicopter, flown by none other than own founder Grant, took off with the vet to dart the rhinos from the air. The darts take about 5 minutes before the sedative takes effect, and then the ground team move in to work on the rhino. The first thing that happens is that the team ensure the rhino has gone down in a safe position. The first black rhino we worked on went down in a thicket, and the chainsaw had to be used to cut some branches to give us better access to the rhino and to ensure he had enough space to get up safely afterward.

The rhinos are quickly fitted with earmuffs and a blindfold to help keep them calm, then the team take measurements and samples such as blood and DNA to have on record. Every rhino is fitted with a microchip. The horn is trimmed using a chainsaw and smoothed over with a grinder. The vet is very careful to remove the horn above the growth plate, ensuring this is a painless operation and that the horn can regrow again. Once the horn trimming is complete, the vet injects the rhino with a reversal and within 2 minutes the rhino is back up on its feet!  

All in all, we dehorned 6 rhinos that morning, 1 black rhino and 5 white rhinos. It was amazing to see the different behavior between black and white rhino – the black rhino certainly lived up to its reputation of being quite aggressive! Once darted, Grant used the helicopter to maneuver the black rhino toward an accessible area, and it did a sharp turn en-route toward our waiting vehicle! Some quick reversing set us safely out the way, and he went veering off into the next thicket before going down in the bushes. For wake up, we didn’t hang around and gave him a wide berth to ensure we didn’t have any more close encounters! It’s an incredible privilege to get so close to black rhino, as they are so rare to see in the wild!

By comparison, the white rhino we worked with were all very well-behaved, and their calmer behavior meant we could stick around to watch each of them wake up and walk slowly away. It is a relief knowing they wander freely with less of a price on their head, and we all hope we’ve done enough to keep them safe. That being said, it’s a sad reality that this is what it has come to and that rhino have to be dehorned to stay alive.

Wild Wonderful World contributed 2.6 flying hours toward this operation (R 34,385 / $2,000).

Read about Julie's perspective of this operation here.

We also support APU helicopter training on Manyoni.