White Rhino Capture!!

Today was one of the coolest days I have had so far at Samara. Peter, the game manager at Samara, phoned Hayley this morning to confirm that the male White Rhino was going to be darted, and transported to another private game reserve today. The whole ordeal is a long process, because there is a lot of paper work that needs to be taken care of before the game capture can occur. We got into our cruiser at around 9 o’clock, and had to wait until the helicopter pilot, named Richard arrived, then the vets to arrive, and the new owner of the male rhino to arrive. The new owner was here to measure out the length of the horn, which ultimately declares how much the rhino is worth. Once all the pieces were put together, the pilot took off with the vet, who shoots the rhino with a dart, and located the rhino. Once they located it, the caravan of trucks quickly drove to the area where the helicopter was hovering. Once we arrived to the rhino, it had already been darted twice, because it is such a massive animal. It was standing there for only a couple of seconds, and dropped to the ground with a loud thud. The head game capturer, named Mike, who controlled the whole operation, put a chip into the rhino’s horn, took a blood sample, and then the vets injected the rhino with something to wake it up slowly. Once the rhino was less drowsy, Mike and his team used cow prods, ropes, and muscle to pull the rhino onto his feet so they can pull him into the truck. Once it got into the truck, I was able to touch his horn, and feel the texture of its skin, which was very similar to an elephant. The new owner of the big male rhino measured its horn, which turned out to be 31 inches. I’m so happy that this game capture happened today, because I leave Saturday! Such a great way to bring such an amazing stay at Samara to a closure.