THE general rule of thumb on game reserves is to let nature take its course.
However, when two newborn buffalo calves were stuck in the mud, game rangers at Phinda Private Game Reserve saw fit to intervene.
A buffalo cow had been seen acting strangely towards two rhinos wanting to wallow at a waterhole. Each time the rhinos approached the waterhole, the buffalo charged them.
Not realising the buffalo cow was trying to protect her calf, the rangers watched in bemusement.
‘At one point the young rhino walked over her stranded calf and wallowed on top of it,’ said Bruce Hedges.
The following morning Hedges and other rangers were looking for cheetah in the same area when they noticed two buffalo cows lingering at the waterhole after their herd had moved off. On closer inspection, the rangers noticed a buffalo calf stuck in the mud.
General consensus was to intervene and safe the young buffalo from certain death. When rangers and trackers started extricating the calf from the mud, they noticed another one, completely buried in the mud.
Both calves were extricated and both were still alive, even the one that had been wallowed on top of by a rhino.
The rangers rinsed the calves’ eyes and nostrils, allowing them to see and breathe properly.
Suffering from sheer exhaustion, the calves were reunited with their herd.
‘An experience like this was once in a lifetime and saving the lives of two baby buffalo that would have otherwise suffered and died in the mud was very rewarding,’ said Hedges.
