When you go on a safari, your goal is to see the “Big Five” (lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants and buffalos) which includes the rhinoceros. The Thornybush game reserve works with Kruger National Park with open range capability for the animals, so they can roam freely between the national park and this private reserve. Our guide estimated that they had about 30 rhino that lived on the Thornybush property, however, they don’t tag or track them, so the numbers can vary based on the animals migration habits.
This makes finding them in the 14,000-hectare (54 square miles) of property a challenge. They are scarce and they stay very well hidden to avoid the poachers. Yes, unfortunately, they still have the probably with poaching these beautiful and nearly extinct animals to feed the ridiculous quest for the horns by the eastern cultures for their medicinal and other ritual beliefs in the horns power and value. Value, yes… the guide estimates that a fully mature horn could fetch almost $1M at the end of the value chain… more precious than gold, diamonds or any black market drugs.
So to prevent poaching of these animals on Thornybush, they have REMOVED the horns from their animals and the horns are safely stored in a vault in Johannesburg. No horn – no risk of poaching. The grounds are clearly posted that their rhinos have been De-Horned.
The first day we found a couple of white rhino. We were lucky as they were close to a road and we didn’t have to chase them deep into the bush. The white rhino are more grazers and tend to stay more in the grassland parts of the park. Notice the broad flat lip. This lip helps the white rhino feed on the flat grasses that it enjoys.
On the second or third day of our safari, we found the elusive black rhino. He is much harder to find as he tends to stay deeper into the bush. This is because he feeds on the leaves of the trees versus the ground grasses. We had to take the jeep in 4 wheel drive overland and deep into the brush to get a view of this guy. He made every attempt to stay well hidden from us.
He is also extremely rare and on the extinction list. We must continue to do whatever we can to keep these animals alive in the wild for future generations to enjoy.
Note the pointed lip on the black rhino. He can wrap the lip around the leaves and strip them from the branches.
The usual view I got of this guy! He really didn’t like getting his picture taken!
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