HOEDSPRUIT: Back to the wild for rhinos and cheetah
After five years of rehabilitation and care, Lion's Den and Dingle Dell, two survivors of rhino poaching, were released back into the wild on Sunday.
After five years of rehabilitation and care, Lion’s Den and Dingle Dell, two survivors of rhino poaching, were released back into the wild last Sunday.
Both of these white rhino cows survived a vicious poaching attack that left them severely injured with gaping holes in their faces, leaving their sinus cavities exposed where their horns had previously defined their iconic appearance.
Groundbreaking research was done at HESC during the treatment of these rhinos and the two cows have undergone extensive treatment by a team of specialised wildlife veterinary surgeons.
Read: A royal visitor to HESC
Lente Roode, Executive Director and Founder Member of Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre says: “I will never forget the sight of these poor animals when they arrived at HESC. No creature should have to endure what these two cows went through on that fateful day. It is incomprehensible that humans can stoop so low for financial gain. While we do our utmost to rehabilitate poaching victims, every incident strengthens our resolve to help eradicate this scourge.”
They are living testimony of the rehabilitation work the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC) performs on injured and orphaned animals brought to the Centre.
In August 2016, three years after the poaching incident, Lion’s Den and Dingle Dell were dehorned to protect them from further poaching. It had taken almost 23 months, 26 treatments and close on 400 screws for Lion’s Den to reach this point. Dingle Dell recovered with fewer treatments.
Read: Hoedspruit Wildlife Corner: Rhino de-horning
Another success story for HESC was witnessed on Monday, when they released a female cheetah called Bettie, back onto the Balule Game Reserve, from where she originally came from. Bettie was brought to HESC in 2011, as a cub of six months to be raised, as her mother had been found dead.
With their outstanding commitment to cheetah conservation, the HESC breeding programme is not only able to assist with rehabilitation of cheetahs, but are also able to track four generations of bloodlines of their cheetahs to determine the DNA ‘passport’ of each animal.
This meticulous attention to detail is one of the reasons that HESC is certified as one of only two CITES accredited captive breeding institutions of cheetahs in South Africa.
