Translocating black rhino

Translocating black rhino is a highly specialized job. Firstly, the animal has to be darted with special narcotics. In KwaZulu-Natal, this usually happens from a helicopter. The helicopter chases the rhino to a chosen area so that it falls asleep in a place accessible to the big game transporting truck which will deposit a rhino crate right in front of its nose. Once the darted rhino has fallen asleep it is blindfolded to protect its eyes from dust and sun as the narcotic allows it to sleep without closing its eyes. A rope is tied around its nose, through the opening of the crate and on to the truck.

Expertise and careful timing is required on the part of the highly-skilled game capture teams. As soon as everyone is in position, the antidote to the narcotic is administered. Within a minute, the rhino starts to stir. Its breathing gets deeper and an ear might twitch. As soon as it stands up, the whole team pushes and the lorry pulls so that the rhino goes into the crate. Once the rhino is inside and the doors secured, the crate gets lifted into the removal truck using a strong crane and the rhino is driven off, either to a special boma, or in the case of field-to-field to translocations, to a new home.

A rhino boma is a specially-built pen capable of housing rhino. Because the translocation to a new home could involve a long trip, rhinos need to get used to drinking from a container and eating food that is given to them. Daily food includes a huge amount of specially cut branches of trees that black rhino like (tamboti and acacia are favourites) and also a couple of kilogrammes of slightly modified horse pellets. (Rhino and horses, both members of the order Perissodactyla or odd-toed ungulates, have similar protein requirements.)

Boma-time also gives staff a chance to check their health and if necessary treat injuries which they sometimes get from fighting or moving through rough territory. Although the rhinos can’t reach each other, they can see and smell their new neighbours which helps them get used to the animals with whom they’ll be released into the new area. Black rhinos adapt relatively easily to being in bomas.