Days 10, 11 and 12

Today has been fantastic. I got up at 4am to be ready to leave at 5. Siseko and I got in the safari vehicle and drove for about an hour and a half to a reserve called Kwandwe, where I got to see a Rhino be darted and treated.
Will darted the Rhino from a helicopter, it took quite a while to find the animals. Then we travelled with the ground crew. I was with Heidi, Will's wife and Daniel, his son. They had come along because the film crew from NBC in America wanted to film Daniel out with his dad, as he often goes out when he can. Once the animal had been darted and was lying down we drove as close as we could to it. The helicopter landed nearby and Will ran across and was the first to reach the animal. They put a blindfold on the Rhino, as with the sedative they keep their eyes open, put some earplugs in, as their hearing is very sensitive, and then checked him over. The Rhino was a sub-adult male and was about half the size he will end up being. Will then, whilst the Rhino was sedated, cut ear notches (as you can see in the picture), in order to help identify the animal. Microchips, exactly the same ones as we put in dogs and cats at home, were put into both the Rhino's horns. This was done by drilling a small hole in the horn, placing the microchip in and then using putty which sets hard to secure it. This was done so that if the Rhino is poached then it's horns can be identified, thus identifying the animal. They also microchipped the Rhino in it's neck, as whilst the ear notches will identify it, if the body isn't found quickly then they may not be recognisable. The microchip needle they used was the same as the one used for dogs and cats, so putting it through the rhino's skin was a little difficult. The Rhino was then given multivitamin and anti-biotic injections. It took a lot of men and a lot of pushing to get the rhino onto it's chest, as it already weighed a lot. I got to touch the Rhino at this point, as they were checking it out I got to give it a stroke and have a closer look at it. It was awesome. Then Will gave the Rhino the reversal drug for the sedative and we all climbed back onto vehicles and watched it wake up. The Rhino wandered around for a little while and was staring at us for a bit, but their eye-sight is very bad and so when he woke up feeling groggy and with sore ears he was trying to work out what we were. Then he wandered off into the bush, we saw him a little later as we left the reserve wandering around and he looked more or less back to normal.
Then Siseko and I bought the game viewer back to Leeuwenbosch, on the way we stopped in Grahamstown for something to eat, as it was 3pm by this stage and we ate toast at about 4.30am. When we got back I came in, showered and then fell asleep for about an hour. It's been a tiring day.
This photo is of the Rhino with it's blindfold on, earplugs in and one clamp still on it's ear to stop it bleeding, when they were just checking it over before reversing the sedative. It was all very exciting.

As a bit of a catch up on what I've been up to, on Saturday we watched the rugby and then I was meant to go out with Will and the film crew on the reserve, but they bought too much kit with them and so I couldn't go, which was a shame, so I stayed at home and chilled out. Then on Sunday we watched the second rugby match and then relaxed in the afternoon. IN the evening we went to Leeuwenbosch to hear Will give a presentation on the conservation work and veterinary work he does on and around the reserve. It was really interesting. He told us a bit about the poaching problem facing the Rhino at the moment and we saw a video of one Rhino which Will was called out to which had been brutally attacked and had it's horn and part of it's face cut away and was left alive, unfortunately it had to be euthanased. It's horrible. There is an increasing problem of poaching over the last 10 years, rising from a handful of cases in 2000 to 343 last year and a figure of about 400 is predicted for this year. It's horrific that people would do that.