50 years ago.
These days rhinos are a fairly common sight in local private game parks and the Kruger National Park (KNP).
One tends to forget that as recently as almost 50 years ago, these animals were practically extinct in the old Transvaal Lowveld. In those days game farmers and the National Parks Board went to great lengths to bring back black and white rhinos to these parts. Some of these operations, sometimes with less success, even made headlines in The Lowvelder of those years.
On April 26, 1967 it was reported that two rhinos, a cow and a bull, were brought here from the Umfolozi Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal by Mr Ossie Doyer from Sibthorpe to his game farm Buffeslhoek next to the Sabi Sands Reserve.
These were the first of four rhinos he hoped to relocate. He paid R200 per animal, although the newspaper mentioned that at that stage prices for rhino overseas already reached into the several thousands.
The newspaper report described how a contingent of men left the Lowveld travelling by truck and by car to collect the animals. These included two professional game catchers. The animals were darted in the presence of a vet.
The poor rhinos collapsed after about 12 minutes. They were then tied up, resuscitated and with the help of a winch, moved into large wooden crates. At the same time a young female calf was also captured on order of the London Zoo.
According to the report, the journey back was fairly rough. This was especially so for the two catchers who constantly had to check on the well-being of the animals and inject them with tranquilisers. Despite this precaution the female rhino severely damaged her horn en route.
With the release at Buffelshoek more disaster struck. The female ambled off into the bush but the male turned back and with a vengeance broke the door of his crate in two, before following his mate.
By Monday the angry bull broke through the cable fence of the seven-morgen encampment and disappeared into the KNP. Doyer and friends gave chase for miles. By Wednesday it was still gone. The Kruger authorities promised to return the rhino if or when it was seen.
To add insult to injury another report about rhinos on the same front page mentioned the death of two of these scarce animals in the Sabi Sands after being hit by a train passing through the reserve. No confirmation was given that it was the same animals.
The railway has since been moved outside Kruger and the adjacent private reserves. Today after nearly 50 years the future of these animals is in danger yet again – this time for a total different reason.
