Friday: Lost One

One of the cheetas we watched eat an impala...they were so full they could hardly move!

Baby impala...all are born within a week of each other to help protect the babies

Our office

Home away from home

Philip at work

The bull rhino

The view from our hut

A two week old giraffe at our camp

Wild dog...these are the animals we track twice a day

Wild dog puppy...so fun to watch!

We started the day early, heading straight for the injured rhino, taking the last shift if the night's vigil to make sure that it wouldn't fall prey to a hyena or lion. We didn't see either, so there wasn't much for us to do until the vet came at 8. Sadly, the collective conclusion was that there was nothing more that could be done for the bull. The vet explained that if a rhino lies on its side for more than an hour, it gets such strong pins and needles in its legs that it can't feel its feet and falls down again. This rhino had already been down for the entire previous day. The vet administered a strong tranquilizer so that the animal would have no memory of its pain, be comfortable, and put it to sleep. Although it was sad, it was for the best, because he would have had to suffer a slow death through the intense heat of the day. It turns out that rhinos are quite susceptible to stress, so his lack of mobility would have caused him to die before the day's end either from the stress directly or from starvation. The vet also performed an autopsy to confirm his suspicion that the bull had suffered physical trauma to his back right leg. His ultimate diagnosis was that he had probably pulled a hip ligament, causing pain and stress on the joints and making him drag his foot along the ground. There was nothing hat could have been done even if this diagnosis had been reached weeks ago when the injury first happened, because it isn't possible to stable a rhino in an enclosure, so as to rest the joint, without causing it more intense stress. We learned a lot from the vet who took tine to explain he situation to everyone involved, including the extra precautions needed because of rhino poaching.

We finished the day by tracking the dogs across the hills. Today, we only saw then briefly on the road but knew they were close by because we could hear them. Today was also our first hot, sunny day.