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Meet
the Orphans – Part 3
Sassy was orphaned at four months, she was
found two days after her mother had been shot by poachers for her horn.
Sassy
was born in June 2008 and is the smallest of the rhino calves and has a
normal pointed horn. Sassy was orphaned on 31 October 2008, she was found in
the Bubiana Conservancy by ranch scouts two days after her mother had been
shot.
Sassy
remained very close to her mothers carcass, even when people were moving
around nearby, so it was decided to capture her in a net instead of the
usual drug darting that can be risky in the high October temperatures
(around 40˚C). Once caught in the net Sassy was given a tranquilizer in
order to calm her for transportation in the crate so she would be taken to
join Blondie and Millie.
Sassy
was a completely different story to Millie and violently attacked anyone who
even thought about coming near her. She was so quick with her violent shin
head butts that she retired a six-man-capture-team in three days with
injuries. So new men with fresh legs needed to be roped into the ring for a
further two violent days before Sassy realised that the milk bottle was a
good thing and started to feed willingly from a bottle.
All three young orphans now live
together and will be raised and released as a group - or crash as a group of
rhinos are known. Millie and Sassy have become very closely bonded, but
Blondie is generally the leader, being the eldest and largest of the three.
Now that the three are settled in
their routine of bottle feeding, they are allowed out into a well-fenced
paddock to browse and exercise during the day. All three will need to be
bottle fed for another year before they are weaned. They will be kept in the
paddock for another year past weaning, until they are big enough to be
released completely back into the wild where they will face lions and
hyenas. |