Big Rhinos Need Big Hearts Too

As it is now officially spring in South Africa, we are patiently waiting for the arid winter landscape to begin showing the first shoots of green grass and leaves - once we receive our first good downpour of rain, of course.

In the meantime, our rhino girls, Esmé, Lula and Khulula, continue to get daily lucerne feeds to supplement their nutrition until there is adequate green vegetation for them to eat.

An interesting fact about rhinos is that they deposit their excrement in a pile in specific spots only. This is called a midden – to transmit information about their sex, age, territorial status (males) and estrous state. We remove the excrement to areas where land erosion has occurred. Rock barricades are then placed around the excrement to prevent it from being washed away with the summer rains. In this manner, eroded areas of land can be revived, which in turn allows for vegetation to grow and provide food for our animals. Ecology at its best!

If you have been following us on social media, you would have seen that Esmé has slowly been introduced to orphaned baby rhino, little Thaba. Thaba lost his mother when she was killed by poachers, and at a mere 3 months of age, he arrived at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre to be cared for. Esmé has been extremely patient with the little one but is quick to enforce boundaries when he keeps nudging at her to play and she isn’t in the mood to do so. We hope that the bond between these two will continue to strengthen and that Esmé takes on the role of either a surrogate mother or big sister.

Please keep checking back for our next update or follow us on media for regular info. We would also like to sincerely thank each and every supporter who donates towards the upkeep of our rhinos. Thanks to you, we can continue to provide them with food, love, care, and of course, very necessary security.