Wildlife

Mutilated rhino in South Africa on long road to recovery

South African veterinarians applying bandage and stitches to a poached de-horned rhinoceros that was left to die by poachers on a ranch in Bela Bela some 150 KM north of Johannesburg in Bela Bela district. Sedated, blindfolded, her ears plugged with cotton-wool, “Hope” the rhino breathes heavily as veterinarians work to repair a gaping wound left by poachers who hacked off her horns.

A year after being left for dead on a game reserve outside South Africa’s southern city of Port Elizabeth, Hope has undergone about 15 operations to reconstruct her ravaged face.

Veterinary surgeon Johan Marais sounded optimistic after examining the wound, originally one metre in length after the attack.

South Africa, home to around 20,000 rhinos, or 80 per cent of the worldwide population, has borne the brunt of a recent boom in international poaching syndicates.

The rhino are slaughtered for their horns in the supposed belief that they cure diseases such as cancer in Vietnam and China. Also believed to be an aphrodisiac, the horn is composed mainly of keratin, the same component as in human nails.

From under 100 rhinos poached in South Africa in 2008, nearly 1,200 were killed by poachers in 2015 in carnage driven by the soaring price of horn which is estimated to be up to US$60,000 (S$81,700) a kilogram.

Hope survived her attack, and for the past 12 months, Mr Marais and his team have exhaustively tried often unconventional techniques to try to heal and re-seal the gruesome cavity in her face.