A rhinoceros move is no small feat.

It took six weeks for a team of specialist veterinarians to move more than 30 young orphan rhinos to a new sanctuary in South Africa.

In this secret place, in the province of Limpopo, the animals will be safe from poachers who killed their mothers.

"We can't just move them all at once and say 'come on, now it's here for you'", explains Yolande van der Merwe, director of the Rhinoceros Orphanage.

“You have to do things delicately, they are very sensitive.

»

A rhino orphanage that linked on foreigners to look after baby rhinos is getting help from local volunteers in South Africa https://t.co/O9ZOtUCJcv pic.twitter.com/fseB5toZL0

— Reuters (@Reuters) April 21, 2020


Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent

By clicking on "

I ACCEPT

", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners

I ACCEPT

And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.

More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.


Helping rhinos overcome trauma

At the sanctuary, the orphans are pampered by a team of carers who take turns with them constantly.

“The rhinos keep their young at their feet all day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” explains the director.

“It's this kind of sustained care that they need,” explains the 39-year-old director.

The first five months, the volunteers sleep every night with the little rhinos.

“We become their mothers,” explains Yolande Van Der Merwe.

“They stick to us at night.

If we want to have a bite to eat or go to the bathroom, we have to be replaced.

Otherwise the baby stresses, cries, cries.

They need this love, this intense care to […] overcome the trauma.

»

Fierce poaching in South Africa

The mission with these orphan babies can be summed up in three words: "rescue, perk up and release".

At birth, these white rhinos weigh around forty kilos.

They immediately start eating a lot and gain more than a kilo a day.

At one year, they are close to half a ton.

South Africa is home to nearly 80% of the world's rhinos, but is also a hotspot for poaching.

In ten years, thousands of individuals have been killed there for their horns, highly sought after in Asia for unproven virtues (it is made up of keratin, like human fingernails).

It sometimes sells for up to 90,000 euros per kilo via mafia networks.

Planet

India: The cheetah reintroduced in the country after seventy years of absence

Planet

Hong Kong: World's oldest captive panda dies at 35

  • Rhinoceros

  • Babe

  • South Africa

  • Animals

  • Animal protection

  • Poaching

  • Planet