Update on our little abandoned rhino calf… We spoke to Pooe, who prefers to go by the name John, and he has named the rhino calf Bahati. This means lucky in Swahili. Lucky that John saw him, and lucky we had time to rescue him before dark. Lucky that he will be raised by loving, caring people! Lucky that he is loved already by so many. Bahati has had a couple of feeds now and has his blindfold off and his ear muffs out. He is content to be loved by the amazing people around him. However, he is not out of danger yet. Only time will tell and we will keep a really close eye on him.
Regarding Bahati’s mom and what we think happened… Around 16h30 the same day we rescued the calf, Ross of Ivory Tree Lodge and his guests saw a rhino cow and a larger bull calf coming onto the road about 2 km from where we found Bahati. She was moving quite fast across the road and a placenta was still visible. Usually cows protect their young, and she should not have abandoned Bahati, but we cannot be sure as no one saw exactly what happened. We are assuming this was his mom as there was no newborn calf with her… These are the best images I have at this time of the rhino mom. They are moving quite fast. Reuniting the calf and mom is not a possibility as we do not know if she might harm the calf and we would not want to risk it.
Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for the kind, loving and thoughtful messages you sent. It has really lifted our spirits after last night. Thank you very much to the people that have donated. We have raised R3,800.00 so far (GBP100 plus USD 150.00) which will go towards any costs incurred for little Bahati.
Thanks Dr Gerhardus for the continued care of little Bahati. It is Dr G feeding Bahati in the video https://www.facebook.com/PilanesbergNP/videos/823379944705599/?t=0.
