Darting,Capturing and Transporting Rhinos.

A couple of weeks ago Jess went to see how her boyfriend and his team operates to capture and move 10 rhino's they had bought for their Game Farm. She has witnessed a couple of these operations now and absolutely loves it. She has had her truck charged by a very cross Rhino bull once after he woke up from having a wound treated too....! She found herself standing alone on the back of the vehicle when the bull decided her truck was the best target for him that day and she had to slide over the roof to get inside and drive it away before the angry bull could do too much damage! My heart nearly stopped when she told me about that episode...! Are you aware of the rate these unique animals are being slaughtered by poachers in Africa...? I doubt my Grandchildren will see them in the wild.......Anyway,here is a couple of pictures of the "behind the scenes" happenings in the day of the life of a South African game rancher...The pictures are in no specific order as I was scared of losing some due to the new Blogger.....

That's Charl standing on top of the trailer overseeing the loading of  the rhino cow and calf.

Jess is standing on the far right..

You have to be a quick -on-your -feet thinking type of person to do this job as it is very dangerous and the drugs used to put the animal under can be potentially deadly...

Helping a drugged animal onto its feet before loading it...

Charl waiting for the little calf to follow suit and sleep like his Mommy...he wasn't very keen at all!

Hard at work...

The poachers mostly kill the little ones as well....

Charl darting one of the rhinos from their helicopter....

Jess loves flying about in it...

Covering their eyes so they don't stress too much....

The difficult terrain they have to work in...

Come on man,will you get down and sleep already???

The vet cutting off the rhino's horn so the poachers will hopefully leave them alone...

Although the first killings for just the little stump left over has started happening elsewhere in the country already....

It takes a whole lot of manpower to get the drugged animal to the truck....

This particular animal has been shot 21 times with an AK 47 last year but has made a full recovery!!

Thanks to these people fighting behind the scenes to preserve these animals...

Finally!!! The calf is asleep.....!

The End