Cape Town - The Inverdoorn Game Reserve has welcomed two rhino calves, born a few days apart.
This was good news after a poaching incident in December last year, when four rhinos were killed and their horns removed.
The Aquila Collection announced that a rhinoceros that survived the poaching incident had given birth to a healthy male calf earlier this month, and another had given birth a few days later.
Aquila Collection owner Searl Derman said: “The gender of the calf is still unknown as the mother is very protective of the baby and not allowing the reserve teams to come in close proximity to determine the baby’s sex.
“We are blessed with the increasingly thriving and growing crash at our Western Cape private game reserves, and this second birth in the last week is another joyous moment.”
The reserve management and monitoring teams said the baby was doing well and the playful calf was healthy and drinking its mother’s milk.
The Aquila 24 Hour Rapid Rhino Response team, under the guidance of the Saving Private Rhino organisation, confirmed that the first calf birthed from the surviving rhino was now orphaned after being rejected by the mother, and was being cared for at a Western Cape rhino orphanage.
“Over the years, we have been involved in the care of a number of orphans and our facilities are geared to provide a safe and healthy environment for orphaned rhinos to get the best possible second chance,” Derman said.
He said caring for a baby rhino was extremely costly and high risk, as they were prone to infections, needed milk every three hours, and required a lot of additional staff-intensive chores on a 24-hour basis.
Derman said he was proud of the work the Saving Private Rhino and 24 Hour Rapid Rhino Response teams were doing around the clock, as it formed a major part of the conservation initiatives to ensure the strengthening of the gene pool and, ultimately, the survival of the species.
kristin.engel@inl.co.za