We took the opportunity on Saturday to have breakfast with the Zoo's Rhino Keeper, Alice Masombuka and to hear first-hand about Alice's experiences being a rhino keeper at a Zoo. She is actually a pachyderm keeper and is also is responsible for the elephants and hippos at the Zoo.
Alice showed us an award-winning film about the famous Phila, a now seven year old black rhino who two years ago was shot nine times by poachers and still managed to miraculously survive! First she was darted from a helicopter with a tranquilizer to slow her down and then tracked and shot with two bullets by poachers on the ground. She managed to escape her attackers even though one of the bullets had shattered her foot.
Phila was rescued and brought to a nearby game preserve where she was prophylactically de-horned, treated and placed in a protected boma to recuperate and hopefully gain her strength back. A couple of months later she was shot an additional seven times at close range in the boma probably by the very same poachers. The theory is that the poachers did this as a senseless act of revenge because they were angry that she had escaped their grasp.
After being treated again for her grievous wounds, Phila lived at the more protected Johannesburg Zoo. Miraculously last year, she was released back into the wild in a secret location. She is doing amazingly well and now even has a male companion. She has not bred yet but everyone is hopeful she will be pregnant soon and will live a normal rhino life in peace.
We took a tour of the Zoo's pachyderm village and Alice introduced us to the two white rhinos who currently live at the Zoo, Peter and Zimbi. Not only were we taken inside the Rhino Enclosure to meet Peter and Zimbi, we were even allowed to pet them!
That's it! I signed up immediately to volunteer at the zoo to help Alice care for her rhino charges. Can't wait!
Alice gave us her insight on the state of the anti-poaching movement in South Africa and the different strategies they are employing to combat this scourge. We all gladly signed a petition urging the South African government and the international community to do more to save the rhinos.
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| with Alice |
I should have spent the night because the next morning I was right back at the Zoo at 9:30 to participate in their Rhino March! I put my Kariega rhino tee shirt back on and my rhino "tears" earrings and necklace from Kisma & Co., grabbed a placard and joined the others who were marching to bring more awareness to the plight of the rhino.
The Rhino March was organized in cooperation with Rhino SA, another worthwhile animal conservation group in South Africa. Check out their website and write a letter to President Zuma. Tell him you want him to save the rhino before it is too late!
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| No, No, No to poaching! |
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