Shakespeare, in this passage from Macbeth, had Macbeth avowing that he feared Banquo’s ghost more than he would have feared facing the ‘arm’d rhinoceros’. Not that the real Macbeth, King of Scotland in the 11th century, would have known much about the rhinoceros. The Indian rhino was barely known by Europeans and its crusty African cousin became known only centuries later.
Africa has two species of the world’s five rhinoceroses, both marvellously Jurassic in appearance. Yet neither is much feared by those who know them. Whenever I see a rhinoceros I recall T. Murray Smith’s words, ‘It is a miracle that this prehistoric idiot still exists.’1
The 2 000- to 2 500-kilogram (4 400- to 5 500-pound) white rhino2 (Ceratotherium simum) is a grazer, while the 1 500-kilogram (3 300-pound) black rhino (Diceros bicornis) is a browser and belongs to a separate genus. Both are short-sighted but the white – which has slightly better eyesight – is generally docile, though it has killed people on occasion. The black rhino is seriously myopic and, as a result, nervous and inclined to defend itself by attacking or at least putting on a threatening display. Its myopia is such that it can mistake a car for a mate; rhinos have been known to put on quite an enthusiastic mating performance until they detect a certain frigidity, when they may ram the car before moving off with their tail curled up.
Although the black rhino has killed fairly regularly over the years, its reputation as one of the most dangerous animals in the bush has been greatly exaggerated. Hunters have long argued over its position in ‘the big five’ – the five most dangerous and sought-after animals to hunt. Some argue, unconvincingly, that they would rather run into a lion or leopard, maybe even a buffalo or elephant – since at least these animals prefer flight to fight. When the black rhino suspects somebody is nearby, it tends to spin around and advance, hesitantly, towards the source of its irritation, stopping and listening through its swivelling funnel-like ears and sniffing the air with distended nostrils. If the person stays still it will saunter off. On the other hand it might decide to charge. Rhinos have been known to charge trucks and, on one occasion in Kenya, a locomotive, when it was killed on impact.
In Man is the Prey I wrote of a theory ‘held dear by a surprising number of big-game hunters that one can side-step a charging black rhinoceros and that it will then go trundling past and eventually stop and begin browsing again’3. I have since found it is no theory. Werner von Albensleven, who hunted in Mozambique for many years, says, ‘The black rhino can be sidestepped with comparative ease.’4 Jim Feely, a ranger with wide experience but who is particularly knowledgeable regarding the two African rhinos, used to stand his ground when a black rhino charged him and, as it reached him, whack it across the nose with his rifle butt and so turn it5. I imagine that takes very precise timing and a very cool nerve.
C.A.W. Guggisberg, an East African wildlife writer, correctly states that a number of people who claim to have been charged by black rhinos have merely been the subject of ‘an exploratory advance’. If the black rhino senses something suspicious, it will throw up his head and trot toward the source of its annoyance; it might trot around in a half-circle and test the wind. It will then stand for a while before retreating, turning from time to time to face the direction where it suspects somebody is standing. It is wise to assume that it is going to attack and look for a tree to climb. Occasionally a shout or violent action will cause the rhino to rush off in a state of high alarm. Then again, it might make him charge. No other animal is so magnificently unpredictable6.
Most big-game hunters agree that the black rhinoceros is easily killed with a medium or heavy rifle. Often it can be effectively turned off its course during a charge with a shot over its head or into the ground ahead of it. It is said to be easily felled when it presents a head-on aspect. J.A. Hunter would allow them to charge to within 15 metres (16 yards) of his clients’ cameras before felling them with a single shot.
The black rhino also has an acute sense of smell. If it detects a slight movement or catches a human scent, it may charge with lowered head, but it might well chicken out before reaching its target. If it does complete its charge, hooking its head right and left, it will often be satisfied with tossing a person into the air (sometimes as high as four metres [13 feet] according to Captain C.H. Stigand7 who was once tossed to such an altitude). But just occasionally it will whip around and bore its victim into the ground, or even gather him up on the end of his horn and toss him again and again. Benjamin Eastwood, chief accountant for Uganda Railways in its pioneer days early last century, had a remarkable escape when he approached a rhinoceros that he thought he had shot dead. The ‘dead’ rhino rose to its feet and fell on him, cracking four of the man’s ribs and breaking his right arm. Then it impaled him through his thigh and threw him high into the air. Twice more it tossed him. Eastwood was alone and lay groaning in the long grass. Had it not been for his assistants who saw vultures circling the spot, he would have died. His arm had to be amputated8.
Ian Player, founder of the wilderness movement in Africa and a world authority on rhinoceroses, said, ‘I have known several men to be killed by black rhino over the years and I doubt whether there is a game ranger in these parts who has not been charged by one. The only sensible thing to do when confronted by a charging rhino is find a tree and climb it – even four feet [1.2 metres] from the ground is usually safe enough.’ He did not advise trying to sidestep a rhino but suggested, ‘Sometimes, the best trick is to chuck your hat or bush jacket – or anything – in its way and hope it will take it out on that.’9
His successor as KwaZulu-Natal conservator, Nick Steele, had numerous bad encounters with black rhinos. He said many a time a black rhino gave visitors a thrill by dashing towards them in what appears to be a frightening charge, but if nothing further provoked it, ‘it would suddenly brake and stand there blinking’. But it can be mean. Steele recounts how ranger Gordon Bailey rode into a black rhino in dense bush, dismounted and smacked his horse on the rump to make it run so that he could divert ranger Ken Willan who was riding 50 metres (55 yards) behind. Too late, Willan ran straight into it and was instantly thrown from his horse. Then began a nightmare game of hide and seek until the rhino gave up, but then it spotted Bailey’s horse, which it charged and mortally gored. Willan’s horse found its way home, but it too had been mortally injured10.
Player could recall four deaths from the less aggressive white rhino around 1970, but since then I have heard of at least two more, one of which involved a ranger who was walking with his girlfriend in Ithala Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal. They were charged by a white rhino and the ranger, to divert the animal’s attention from his companion, ran off to the side and paid for it with his life.
There have been a few incidents involving tourists and black rhinos, including a woman who ran and fell face-down in soft muddy ground. The rhino ran over her, doing little damage. Another involved a rhino that charged a group of tourists and picked on a man who was running away. (Tourists are routinely and gravely warned never to run from a wild animal, no matter how big it is, unless the ranger orders it. He or she will do this only when there is no alternative and when the ranger feels he or she can distract the animal and down it.) He ran in a wide circle, which took him back through the throng of his companions who, wide-eyed, realised two things: firstly, that the rhino had disappeared and, secondly, that the man was not aware that he was running between them.
The black rhino was and is still considered to be a serious trophy and for this reason has been shot to extinction in most of its range in Africa. By 1994 the IUCN’s Rhino Specialist Group said the black rhino’s numbers were down to 2 300 in the wild. Today there are probably 700 in South Africa divided between Zululand and the Kruger Park11. The black rhino became extinct in the Kruger Park during the 1930s. It was reintroduced from the 1960s and today there are possibly as many as 350 in the park12, which can easily sustain another 2 000.
Wilderness Trails, which were inspired by Player, where groups of up to eight tourists are accompanied by two armed escorts, were pioneered in the 1960s in Zululand’s provincially run reserves. While Player and the Natal Parks Board (now Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife) felt it was safe enough for people to walk inside game reserves where lions and elephants and other potentially dangerous animals existed, the National Parks Board (now SANParks) was for many years reluctant to allow walks. Since the Kruger Park introduced five-day trails about 30 years ago, thousands of tourists have safely walked there, but there have been incidents. In 2001 a party from a car rental company was on the Wolhuter Trail in the south of the park. They had been watching a small herd of peacefully grazing white rhino mothers and their calves when a bull, from some distance away, suddenly charged. The two rangers quickly moved the tourists behind a tree and tried to chase the animal off, but when it continued to charge a ranger had to shoot it. It was the second rhino attack on tourists in three years. In 1999 a white rhino had been fatally shot by park rangers after charging tourists on the same trail.
In 2004 a tourist was seriously injured in the south of the park near Byamiti, in an incident involving three white rhinos. Tracker Elias Chauke was lifted clear of the ground by a charging rhino and carried along, wedged between the rhino’s two horns. As the rhino stormed past the lead guide, Dumisani Zwane, it received a smack on the head from the butt of Zwane’s rifle. It dropped Chauke, who suffered a broken hand and three broken ribs. The other two rhinos advanced on the bewildered group and one of them gored a man in the buttocks and legs. It appeared that the hikers had unwittingly trapped the three rhinos in a loop on the Byamiti River and, in a panic, the animals charged through them.
Jeremy Anderson feels that rangers and trail guides tend to teach white rhinos to behave badly – just as they do with elephants – ‘by retreating every time the animal snorts’. He was with a ranger in Zululand who began retreating as soon as a white rhino moved towards him. Anderson told him to stand his ground and they watched as the rhino passed within two metres (seven feet), sniffing the trail and totally uninterested in them. The ranger had misread the situation. Curiously, Anderson believes the white rhino is more dangerous than the black. While the black will charge and probably lose interest, the white will ‘pursue you’ he says. His wife, Liz, was chased ‘round and round’ by a belligerent white rhino before managing to hide inside a thicket13. I experienced a charge by a female white rhino with a calf. I stepped behind a tree but was torn away from it by a panicked tourist who hugged the tree. The two rhinos passed within a few metres and gave me not a glance. They were running blindly through our group and not at any particular target. Anderson believes they will behave aggressively only once in 100 encounters.
The slaughter of Africa’s rhinos is yet another sad tale of mindless killing in Africa. John Hunter admitted without regret to having killed more than 1 600 rhinoceros (mostly black), some for ‘sport’ and some on contract to governments to clear land for human habitation14. In Kenya he shot 300 in 1947 and 500 the following year to prepare land for settling the Wakamba. The land proved to be unsuitable.
Poachers are taking a steady toll wherever rhinos exist. Because of the near extinction of Asia’s three rhino species, pressure by Asian criminal syndicates on the two African species is annually stepping up, even though the Chinese regard the horns of Africa’s rhino as inferior to those of Asia.
The rhino-poaching situation in South Africa epitomises the growing severity of the war being fought along the ‘front line’ between those living outside protected areas and the animals and their custodians within. In 2007, 13 white rhino fell to poachers in South Africa, the poachers being paid by Far Eastern crime syndicates. Many of the criminals behind the poaching are Vietnamese nationals. A year later the number of South African rhinos killed rose to 100. In 2010 South Africa’s national parks and reserves lost 333 – 10 of which were the endangered black rhino. In 2011 448 were killed, 19 of which were black. More than half the rhinos were killed in the Kruger National Park15. That year 20 suspected poachers were killed and nine wounded in gun battles with rangers and the police – five deaths more than the previous year. In 2011 the South African Army was called in to patrol Kruger Park’s border with Mozambique where most of the action was concentrated. It failed to curb the poaching.
South Africa is targeted because its rhino population of 22 000 represents about 90 per cent of Africa’s total.
In January 2012 Kruger Park rangers, on one day, came across eight dead rhinos – all had had their horns taken off by a chainsaw; some in fact were still alive but immobilised by drugs darts. Rangers later met up with a group of poachers who are said to have opened fire on them – two, both Mozambicans, were killed. Some of the 379 poachers arrested in 2010 and 2011 are serving sentences of up to 16 years.
Dr Morné du Plessis, CEO of WWF South Africa, was quoted by news agencies as saying, ‘Rhino poaching is being conducted by sophisticated international criminal syndicates that smuggle horns to Asia. It’s not enough to bust the little guy – investigators need to shut down the kingpins organizing these criminal operations. Governments in Africa and Asia must work together across borders to stop the illegal trade.’16 The reports also quoted Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC’s rhino trade expert, who said that rhino horn had gained popularity ‘among wealthy Vietnamese elites and business people to give as a gifts when currying political favour, or taking as an antidote for overindulgence’17. TRAFFIC facilitated visits between South African and Vietnamese government officials to discuss deepening cooperation on law enforcement. By early 2012 little had been achieved.
Rhino horn, comprising compacted fibre, is considered to be a powerful fever cure in the Far East and by some as an aphrodisiac. Powdered Asian rhino horn has been listed as a fever cure in Chinese medical archives for 3 000 years. Until recently it was much coveted by Yemeni youth who treasured elaborately carved dagger handles of rhino horn – nowadays they are more interested in Harley Davidsons.
‘We’ve always had subsistence poaching [for meat],’ said George Hughes, a former head of the old Natal Parks Board. ‘But serious poaching for large game by professionals selling rhino horn or ivory to Far Eastern syndicates is far more alarming.’ He claims the fatal step was the international ban on rhino horn sales in 1977. ‘It was like Prohibition in America in the 1930s. Prices shot up and so did poaching.’18
Former African army professionals with modern weapons are thought to be involved. In 2010 a Vietnamese national was caught on camera taking delivery of rhino horn outside the Vietnamese embassy in Pretoria. He was sentenced to 10 years.
Elephant- and rhino-poaching operations are commonplace in the game reserves of Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia, and in Zimbabwe the rhinos introduced over the years since the 1970s have largely been poached19.
The other three rhino species are in the Far East: the Asiatic or Sumatran rhinoceros (Didermocerus sumatrensis), which has two horns; the Javanese rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus), which is one-horned; and the huge and more dangerous Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). The Sumatran and Javanese are practically extinct and both are said to be short-tempered and aggressive; there are a few accounts of men being tossed by the latter.
The Indian rhinoceros with its single horn and heavily folded skin is every bit as crusty as the black rhino of Africa. Its method of attack is interesting, in that it tends to attack with its lower teeth, instead of its horn (as do the other Asian species). E.P. Gee, an authority on India’s rhino, says that the animal is aggressive and ‘annually kills a few people’20. Probably not many more than 600 survive today in their last strongholds in Assam, Bengal and Nepal.
There are ancient accounts of the two-tonne Indian rhinos being used in war by the kings of ancient India, as a sort of tank. This suggests that the Indian rhino is more tractable than it looks. The Indians are supposed to have lashed tridents to their horns. Was the war rhinoceros the start of the evolution of the modern-day tank?
