#WorldRhinoDay – Adopted rhino calves doing well
Orphaned baby rhinos, Lula and Esme, who were both adopted by Cathay Pacific in 2017, are healthy and going from strength to strength since their arrival at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC), according to HESC management.
Cathay Pacific adopted Lula and Esme as part of its ongoing partnership with the Investec Rhino Lifeline (IRL) project, an initiative to protect South Africa’s endangered rhino population from extinction, educating local and global communities on the importance of rhino conservation.
“We are pleased to see how well both Lula and Esme are doing since their adoption, and would like to thank the team at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre for their ongoing commitment to providing a safe and healing environment for all baby rhinos,” says Ashish Kapur, Cathay Pacific Country Manager for South Africa. “It is particularly appropriate, in light of World Rhino Day, that we bring our attention back to the plight of the rhino and the scourge of poaching its population faces.”
Lula, who was found on 12 February 2017 next to her mother’s carcass appeared visibly stressed, dehydrated and vulnerable. She was darted later that day and received seven litres of fluid containing antibiotics, vitamins, cortisone and a long-lasting tranquilizer to ease her stress. She was taken to HESC later that day to ensure her safety during rehabilitation, where she remains to this day. Lula, who was initially resistant to care and feeding efforts made by HESC caregivers, is now happily consuming a healthy four bales of lucern (alfalfa) leaves as well as four large helpings of teff grain each day.
Read: Rhino breeder Piet Warren sells animals due to financial pressures
Esme was welcomed to the Centre in October 2017, and was brought in, thankfully, not as a result of poaching, but because she was at risk of severe malnutrition, having lost a considerable amount of weight and seen to not be developing at the rate expected of a one-month old rhino.
“Lula and Esme are just two of the many injured and orphaned baby rhinos based at HESC and in need of care and rehabilitation,” says Kapur. “The IRL project, in partnership with Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary ensures that baby rhinos, whether orphaned or simply in need of some love and care, receive what they need before being safely released back into the wild.”
As part of its commitment to the conservation initiative, Cathay Pacific provides funding to IRL to cover the costs of relocation and transportation, veterinary care, feeding, security, and rehabilitation for Lula and Esme. While HESC has seen considerable improvement in the baby rhinos’ health, the organisation maintains that additional donations would go a long way towards helping meet the growing daily dietary needs of the baby rhinos.
Read: Three more rhinos lost at the hands of poachers
“Along with their daily dietary needs, the baby rhinos also require everything from tick treatments to bedding, all of which can become quite expensive without the help of our generous donors,” says Adine Roode, Director of HESC. “We would like to thank everyone who has played a role, financial or otherwise, in helping with the rehabilitation and safe-housing of these vulnerable animals, and urge more people to heed the call to lend a helping hand where possible.”
Cathay Pacific is a signatory of the United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce Buckingham Palace Declaration and a member of the Wildlife Taskforce under IATA’s Environment Committee.
