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Rhino cow sees red

January 2016
  • Black rhinos, aggressive by nature, are particularly irritable when they have offspring

    Black rhinos, aggressive by nature, are particularly irritable when they have offspring. Photo: Karl Stromayer, United States Fish and Wildlife Service

In the Waterberg Plateau Park a tracker has been injured in an attack by a rhino cow. The 36-year-old had followed the tracks of a rhino cow and its calf in order to identify them as part of a routine anti-poaching measure. She was accompanied by two armed rangers. When they suddenly encountered the cow, it immediately stormed towards them from a distance of five metres. All three managed to save themselves onto trees, but the tracker chose a tree that was too weak to carry her weight. She fell back to the ground and was attacked by the rhino. When one of her colleagues threw a branch on the back of the raging animal, it stopped and fled into the bush. The tracker had a narrow but lucky escape: She sustained wounds on her back and legs, but did not break a single bone.