Getting a wild rhinoceros to stand still for eye medication sounds impossible, but sometimes the most unconventional ideas produce remarkable results.
Specialists in animal behavior working with Florida’s Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society made a trip to Africa this past August to assist an at-risk white rhino suffering from a dangerous parasitic infection in its eyes.
According to Daniel Terblanche, who works as security manager for Imvelo Safari Lodges, locals in Zimbabwe never would have conceived such an approach.
“Believe me, we didn’t think of it; it was a completely ridiculous idea to us,” Terblanche said. “But without trying all of the things that we could to rectify that situation, we would have been in trouble, I think.”
Near Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, the Community Rhino Conservation Initiative works alongside Imvelo Safari Lodges to involve local communities in bringing southern white rhinos back to communal areas for the first time in the country’s history.
Palm Beach Zoo’s CEO and President Margo McKnight was touring the region last year when Mark Butcher, managing director of Imvelo Safari Lodges, informed her that a health crisis involving a male rhino called Thuza threatened the entire program’s success.
“This rhino had bleeding eyes. He was rubbing his eyes,” Butcher said. “And I was looking at a potential where this guy was gonna lose his eyesight. And this is in a pilot project that’s got fantastic vision for a future for conservation throughout Africa.”
Thad and Angi Lacinak, who established Precision Behavior, made the journey to Zimbabwe to collaborate with anti-poaching guards. Their strategy drew from experience at Palm Beach Zoo, where creatures learn to willingly cooperate in their medical treatment.
“With this few animals in this location in Africa, it was essential that we save all of them,” Angi Lacinak said. “So when they called and said, Thuza is going to lose his eye, a blind rhino is a dead rhino. So no matter what it took, we were going to go over there and try.”
The strategy involved luring Thuza into a narrow enclosure using his preferred food, then gradually getting him comfortable with human contact and water being sprayed on his face.
“Within about a week, we were actually putting the eye drops strategically in his eyes while he held for it,” Lacinak said. “And by the end of two weeks, we had transferred that skill set to not only Daniel, who was in charge of leading their guards, but to the guards.”
Southern white rhinos are classified as near threatened in terms of conservation status, with roughly 16,000 remaining in natural habitats. Illegal hunting and disappearing habitat continue to pose major threats. While Thuza and his fellow rhinos still encounter dangers in their natural environment, his vision has been successfully preserved.
“They’re consistently getting the medications into his eyes every day,” Lacinak said. “And the rhinos are just thriving now and they feel really, really confident that this solved their problem.”
