12-Mar-10 2:00 PM CST

Beauty of the Beasts

FOR an actress to be a success, she must have the face of Venus, the brains of Minerva, the figure of Juno and the hide of a rhinoceros, declared Ethel Barrymore.

With further investigation she would have found rhinos respond to companionship, are curious and playful, and gravitate towards children. They can be traced back to the Jurassic period and are happy to wander in the wild solo or in small groups, becoming aggressive only if their territory or family hierarchy is threatened.

The southern white rhino was a leading target for big game hunters a century ago. The slaughter emptied Africa of white rhino and by 1910, when only 100 remained, a concerted conservation program was initiated to prevent this extraordinary animal from becoming extinct.

Today, there are thriving populations in protected reserves and zoos across the world.

I am fortunate to be invited to join colleagues at Wildlife Veterinary Operations of the Kruger Research Centre to take part in a white rhino capture in this South African reserve.

We drive to the airport, where a South African National Parks helicopter is being checked over for our departure. On board are the pilot and two vets, one of whom is a marksman who will dart the selected rhinos from the helicopter. It's a smooth and professional operation, almost military-like in its precision, and the care and welfare of the animals is the top priority.

South African National Parks holds three rhino auctions a year, offering about 200 animals for sale; potential buyers are vetted and must be registered regarding their suitability to buy as well as their reasons for doing so.

The price for a male white rhino is about $60,000 and the money raised goes towards conservation and research. We need to capture two males rhinos for an auction that will be taking place soon in Pretoria.

We take off and the magnificence of the vast Kruger Reserve spans the horizon.

We are heading towards the eastern border of the Kruger, where the rhinos will be selected. Poaching has increased alarmingly in this area, so the presence of the capture team and the helicopter is an added deterrent.

Anti-poaching squads constantly patrol the reserve but the vast territory is hard to cover in its entirety. Between 2000 and 2007, 120 rhinos were poached from Kruger, but in the past 18 months that figure has doubled. Rhinos are poached for their horns and according to Johan Malan, operations manager of South African Veterinary Wildlife, the contraband goes through Singapore and Vietnam, mostly to Asian customers. Horns command a huge bounty and to impoverished African communities around the reserve, the rich rewards are often worth the risk.

We spot a magnificent male white rhino and we fly towards the waiting transport truck and the on-ground veterinary team.

The helicopter lands and we join the team while the marksman and pilot take off, with the marksman in a harness strapped to the side of the helicopter.

They fly over the rhino and herd him closer to the ground team, then he is expertly darted. The sedative is finely tuned to allow the animal to revive quickly, which means the team will be able to gently walk him to the transport truck. In the old days, a stronger sedative would completely knock out the animal, who would then need to be crane-lifted on to transport, as the animals weigh up to 2800kg.

The operation goes like clockwork and the darted rhino walks towards the road track, staggers a little and then lies down.

Five vets simultaneously conduct medical checks, including taking blood, faeces samples and tagging, and it's not long before the sedative weakens and he begins to revive.

The vets are then helped by a group of 20 keepers and park employees to get the beast back on to his feet. He is gently blindfolded and secured with ropes, and with all the team pulling and guiding him, he walks slowly to the transport and up the ramp, to be settled inside.

He will be driven to the holding yards at Skukusa research camp.

There are now 10,000 white rhinos in Kruger as a result of successful breeding over the past few years, but this is countered by poaching and the human population demanding more land from the wild, so conservation work is always under threat.

Ecotourism is emerging as a growth area, opening opportunities for local communities to make a living other than subsistence farming and creating a chance for conservation to develop and to preserve what is left of the wild, to allow a balance to exist between human life and wildlife.

Heather Caddick is the president of Zoos South Australia.

News items on this page are from external sources and the International Rhino Foundation cannot be held responsible for the authenticity of their content, nor for the continuing presence of original links.

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