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It’s incredible to think the Moholoholo Rehabilitation Centre has now been around for over twenty years. In 1991, a group of people passionate about wildlife decided to start the centre when they saw the great need for a place where animals and birds could be nursed back to health in order to be introduced to the wild when they were ready. Brian Jones was a key part of starting the centre and was already caring for a crowned eagle before the centre even began. Soon after the centre started to come together, a baby zebra was brought to the team for care as well. Since that time, countless animals and birds which were hurt, deserted or poisoned have been rehabilitated back into their natural habitats.
When a white rhino needs to be brought into the centre, Brian Jones is usually leading the team. White rhinos happen to be the second biggest of all mammals. Only the elephant is larger than this huge animal that can weigh up to two tons and whose back stands as tall as the average man. The white rhino is one out of five endangered species of rhino; at one time there were about thirty. Regardless of what its size may imply, the white rhinoceros is surprisingly said to be the calmest and most relaxed of all the types of rhino, but it still wouldn’t be wise to put this to the test.
In January, the rehab centre got a call from a local game park saying there was a baby rhino wondering around without her mother which is extremely unusual. Brian along with a team from Moholoholo immediately took off to check it out and upon arrival discovered the rhino had been born the day before and had then been abandoned by her mother. The only real concern as they checked her out was that her feet weren’t properly formed; besides that, she seemed quite healthy.
Usually, if a mother rhino abandons her baby, it’s because she knows somehow there is something severely wrong with the little one’s health. However the team soon found out the mother had recently been taken from her home in the wild and moved, and this can cause such intense stress that she gives birth prematurely. Finding out the little one’s abandonment was due to the mother’s capture stress put the staff at ease that no major health problems surrounded the little one. Also the premature birth is the most likely cause of a baby rhino’s feet deformity.
After finding the white rhino, the team promptly offered her some milk which she drank rapidly, as she hadn’t received any milk from her mother. This helped her to become comfortable with the strangers around her, and she actually seemed content in their midst after her belly was full. Surprisingly, she didn’t seem nervous as the staff monitored her for awhile to see that her digestive system was working. After that, they were happily on their way for her new temporary home at Moholoholo where she could receive the proper care.
Because a baby rhino has to eat every two hours, one could say that it’s just as challenging to care for a baby rhino as it is to care for a baby human if not more so. When you think of how a baby rhino goes from about forty-six kilograms to five hundred kilograms in the first two years of life, there’s no wondering why so much eating is required! In addition to the feeds, the caregivers also had to keep her from eating or sucking on anything that was dirty because of her system still being so fragile. Of course taking care of a baby rhino is a huge commitment, but the team at Moholoholo takes great satisfaction in such a rewarding work. To them, there’s nothing like seeing an animal restored back to strength and then released back into the wild. For updates on the progress made by injured and abandoned wild animals towards rehabilitation, visit Moholoholo.
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