On walking one of the properties close by our main camp on
Amazulu, we had some great sightings the one day, to me a day that is the
essence of walking trails and getting the opportunity to become part of the
nature around you. The terrain was not easy and we covered well over 25km of
walking in order to log the, well deserved, 7 sightings for the day. We reached
the lodge after walking most of the morning and had a chance to refill our
water bottles, as temperatures soared well over 35 degrees. We left the lodge
and headed south and after a few kilometers we spotted, far up in the distance,
some white rhino feeding on some burnt patches. After tracking buffalo most of
the morning, up some very steep mountainsides, this sight was well welcomed.
As you’ll see in the video, we were walking up on the road
leading to the area where we spotted the rhino. You could hear the loud thuds
of her feet hitting the ground as she suddenly came into view, running down the
road we were on. We quickly moved off the road, to our right, and stood dead
still. The mother and calf came to a stop about 55m from us. We think the
reason for them running down the road, is that one of the bulls we saw up in
the same area might have disturbed them and she ran down the road. She was
unaware of our presence as the wind was well in our favor. She stopped briefly
and moved around the other side of the road as we watched. After making a small
loop she came back onto the road as the wind started swirling about. She became
aware of a presence and moved in slowly to investigate. She came in to about
25m of us, as we stood motionless. Both her ears pointed at our direction as
she sniffed around in the air. It was a few moments of ‘benoude boude,’ but
amazing to see this beautiful animal up close and on their level. As soon as
she sniffed and became aware of us, you can see how she turns side profile,
shielding her calf from us. With a few snorts and grants, she sped off in the
opposite direction.
We continued up the road when they had cleared the area and moved
up towards where we had spotted the others. We managed to get a nice sighting
of a female and two sub- adults feeding. We viewed them and extracted without
disturbing the animals, which is always a successful sighting. Heading up
further towards the fence line the female and calf from earlier came out the
bush ahead of us. Wind was in our favour and they were unaware of our presence.
We looked on as the calf was in a very playful mood. Running
in circles around the mother while vocalizing squeaky grunts. This was awesome
to see and was animal behavior at its best. The calf made a few turns by the
mother and then started trotting down in our direction. We moved slightly to
our left to stay behind a small barrier between them and us; a barrier that a
rhino of her size, will make light work of! The calf came to about 40m from us
when it suddenly became aware of our presence. You could actually see the shock
on the little ones face as it realized we were there. The mother was there in
no time, super alert and looking around. The calf made such quick dash back to
mom, it tripped slightly over a bush, quickly picked itself up and got behind
her large mother. We stood dead still and observed as the female sniffed the
air to investigate. I think at this time everyone had pretty much decided on his
tree of choice. She looked at us, for what felt like hours, then turned and ran
off, calf close by. They went some distance and stopped, as the mother scanned
the area intently.
There was so much to learn from the behavior we had
witnessed by this female white rhino and her calf on this day. A lot was taken
from it. It has happened often that these calves will run into a trails group
without knowing that they were there, and can obviously turn into something
very serious when the mother feels you threatening her or her calf. Through
just standing our ground and remaining motionless she moved off, not sure what
to make of the situation. We felt privileged to have been allowed to view these
Rhino in their everyday life. It’s just beyond me to think that people will
ruthlessly murder these magnificent animals to satisfy their own greed and in
the light of all the latest rhino poaching, it was a privilege to be able to be
part of their daily, undisturbed, lives for just a few minutes.
Share your comments, feelings and past experiences with us! Email us at hanroe@bhejanenaturetraining.com
Creating Awareness Through Wilderness....
For more information on Bhejane Nature Training or available courses email us on info@bhejanenaturetraining.com!
No comments:
Post a Comment