**NEW ARRIVAL**
Meet Robynne our newest arrival at the Orphanage.
She is a beautiful 1 year old black rhino calf. The rhino monitoring team on her home reserve found her by herself and they still haven’t found her mother. It is suspected that her mother died of old age and the search for some evidence continues.
Little Robin is still very scared and confused as to her new surroundings and it will take a some time for her to settle. Our carer is attempting to make friends with her through the safety of a barrier and provide some comfort and reassurance. The most important step will be to get her to eat some browse & dry food.
Our little Robynne however is progressing well. She has started browsing at midnight and is not as aggressive anymore. She has allowed our carers to touch her face and give a scratch behind the ears. Our carers will start trying to bottle feed her through the barrier and continuously try to provide some form if comfort to her.
Update – 30 May 2021
Little Robynne is finally calm and settled enough to sleep under the warm IR light in her room. We have had the first frost of the winter season last night and without her mother’s warmth & guidance, it is better for her to sleep inside the room. She is wolfing down all the branches the carers cut for her morning and afternoon and is drinking lots of water. She has taken quite a liking in our internal security guy and quite happily came over, taking the leaves from his hand.
Satisfied with her progress and elated that she is safe, we can not help to worry about all the rhinos everywhere around us. This particular full moon has been a bloodbath with reserves in our part of the province being hit hard. It shocked us to the core to hear that 11 rhinos in our area had been killed by poachers in 7 days, many of them dehorned to try and prevent just this. It is a war out there and drastic measures are undertaken by all APU’s and landowners to protect their precious animals, trying their utmost best to keep tabs on the whereabouts of their rhinos in order to protect them better. We too are working on a plan to do our part, not only for the rhinos in our care but for our rhino community too. Watch this space