GRAAFF-REINET NEWS — A five-year-old white rhino bull died tragically at Mount Camdeboo Private Game Reserve recently after a freak accident during a darting procedure.
After three rhino were killed as a result of poaching incidents in 2014 and 2015, all the rhinos on the reserve were dehorned for their own security, and each animal was fitted with a tracking collar attached around its foot.
The purpose of the operation at the end of last month was to replace the tracking collar on the rhino and to check on the regrowth of its horn. The animal was darted from a helicopter, as is the normal procedure, but for some reason, the drug in the dart did not work as quickly as expected, and the rhino managed to run a fair way before falling down a slope.
When the team reached the animal, it was still breathing, but it died shortly after, as its collar was being replaced. It is thought that the most probable cause was the awkward way that it had fallen up against a rock, which could have constricted the blood flow through an artery.
Members of the American-based Dallas Safari Club captured the whole terrible ordeal on film. The team was in the country to make a rhino- poaching documentary on the reserve, to help educate others about the poaching crisis in South Africa.
Correct procedures were followed throughout, and the operation was overseen by police and environmental authorities. One of the country’s top wildlife vets was also present, who darted the animal from the helicopter.
The owners of the reserve, which is situated about 60km from Graaff-Reinet, are devastated at the loss of the young animal.
They were not prepared to say how many rhinos in total are on the reserve for security reasons, but the rhinos on the reserve are part of the “Camdeboo Big Five” (a breeding cheetah pair, white rhinos, giraffe and mountain zebra) which are on every visitor’s wish-list to see.
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