A lot has been said lately about intensive rhino poaching in South Africa. A lot, but still not enough and we all have to contribute towards stopping poachers killing our assets. Already over 400 rhinos have officially been poached this year, possibly a lot more with all the carcasses not found yet. Poaching is the worst thing a hunter has to fight. I guess I don’t have to mention here that it is mostly the hunters being really concerned about poaching activities. It is very easy to combine hunting and poaching, to blame the whole word and to do nothing. For us, fighting this curse is an every day job. Without hunters, species in South Africa like bontebok, black and white rhinos and much more would have probably disappeared.
It boils down to a very simple fact. A game reserve, whether into photographic safaris or hunting, will very seldom invest huge amount of money to introduce or re-introduce white rhinoceros. They will only do so if the species has a financial value. Surplus will be hunted or sold on auction (often to other reserves managed through hunting). The day that value disappears, the specie will be in great danger. Only the wealthiest game reserves would then be able to keep rhinoceros with no need to get a return on their investment. Others won’t be able to afford that financial risk.
Rhino hunting in South Africa has always been strict, it is now even more with new rules and regulations in place, double-checking all aspects of the legitimacy of the hunt. This is a good thing.
Harvesting a rhino in South Africa contributes greatly to protect the whole rhino population in the country.
That old cow with this great trophy gave us a very challenging hunt this weekend. She has always been wilder than any other rhinos since arriving on our concession about 8 years ago. A few times in the past, she would have liked to modify the shape of my Toyota while protecting her offspring! Hunting springbok on her territory was sometimes a bit … sporty should I say. We all knew her short sense of humor, and when we decided she was part of our game management plan, and needed to go, who ever was gonna harvest her would not only get a great trophy but most probably a very interesting hunt.
An Eastern Europe hunter that we will call Vladimir for our story, was up for the challenge. Usually, we would see that rhino every second day without looking for her, but it is only on day 3, after driving around for about 230 km, that we found her with a young bull … less than 3 km away from the lodge! It is now 18:30 and we only have about 30 minutes of good light left for the day. We quickly get within 30 meters of the beast when the curiosity of an other big female pushed her to come and snig us a bit closer. At 10 meters away, I had no options but to throw a stone on her nose, making her run away in a cloud of dust following her very young calf. Our big female and the young bull followed, stopping frequently to find out where we were. We run from tree to tree to get close again quickly, time is against us. Rhinos can’t see well but they can hear and smell remarquably well. She runs in a circle into the wind to find us, when she does, she runs in the opposite direction. When she sees movement in her comfort zone, she charges towards it. We also have to run in a circle to stay away from her wind. It is like a ballet amongst the acacia tress there. The size of Vladimir’s eyes then tells me a lot about the situation he is experiencing right now. No time to explain everything, especially with that language barrier, the translator will have some catching up to do later …
Last try, same scenario and they finally run away into the darkness…
We decide to have an early start at 05:00 the next day. We had a bit of rain last night, and we are trying to establish the direction given by the last tracks. There is a fair amount of rhinos on this concession, and it takes time to go through all the close by waterhole to find her again. I give radio to my 3 trackers and send them on to the top of the hills while we will drive around them. Owen calls, he found her on the foot of the hill. We leave the 4×4 in the distance and approach on foot. Soon I can see the long and shiny horn in the morning light, she is still with the young bull, pretty relaxed. Wind is good, soil is soft from the rain, we have to come right this time… but all of a sudden she lifts her head towards us and runs the other way amongst the acacia trees. Thorns on her skin are making pretty much the same noise as on my vehicle! I take the spoor followed by Vladimir and we soon find them in thick brush. They will run a few times, we would catch them up, pretty much the same as yesterday late afternoon, but this time in quite thick cover. Vladimir is starting to like this kind of rhino hunting …. and then we lose them. No more tracks, gone … Call the trackers and we all walk up and down looking for clues. Owen calls on the radio. He found 2 tracks going through a little stream towards the “2 dam” little valley. It is a lot more open there and I decide to climb the nearest hill to overlook the whole area. If they are still in there, we’ll see them. 20 minutes later glassing everyway we can, still no rhino… impossible, they have to be here somewhere. I sent the 3 trackers beating all those little bushes with not much hope to find the beasts, and guess what, 3 of them fly out of the last bush above the second dam. It is a big male, and our big female and the young bull. And they run and they run, luckily tracker Smiley was still on top of a big hill and he can follow them in his binoculars.
We have to start from scratch again, who said rhino hunting was just a formality?
3 hours and 15 km away, we think we know where they should be hiding, after going through quite a few options along the way. We are now going through the plains where we are all convinced to find our trophy rhino. Can’t find her, so I decided to speed up the process by getting on top of the big hill where we could glass the whole area at once. I am now speeding up a bit to get to that bad very steep road when someone is knocking on the roof saying “Stop Stop Stop!!). This is what I have been waiting for … it is Gazi, he saw the big female and the young bull 200 meters away, hiding on the edge of acacia bushes. A quick look and YES, this is the one. Don’t even need binoculars at that distance, her horn is so long that it cannot be mistaken with an other rhino. I grab my rifle, Vladimir is already walking behind me, ready as ever… 200 meters, 150 … we get to about 80m in not such a good wind. I am worried the wind could swing and they would run away again. Quick look at Vladimir with my thumb up asking for approval, he head goes up and down for a yes, I secure the shooting sticks in the ground, Vladimir adjusts the Sako .375 H&H Magnum and squeezes the trigger. The 300 gr solid bullet reaches its target, the beast jumped and ran straight, typical reaction for a heart shot.
We start walking around to get closer in a good wind, soon I spot the young bull, stocked in a bush looking back from where the shot went. I can now also see the big rhino lying down, it was indeed a heart shot… Owen and Gazi are now back with us, we wait a bit longer and decide to go and get our rhino. 15 minutes and a few dozen stones later, we manage to chase that young bull away after a few milk charges… we would have had action all the way to the end during this rhino hunt!
Emotion takes over the adrenalin rush, the trophy is superb, Vladimir’ has just achieved one of his wildest dreams, harvesting a rhino on foot.
