Mabuya’s Story Continued…

Mabuya has been living back in the wild for over five years now, still completely blind. After rehabilitation from being shot in the head by poachers she was released back into the wild. After some initial challenges working out where reliable water sources were she worked out where her resources were and successfully established a home range in what was the best habitat available. It is normal for breeding age black rhino cows to take the best habitat because the better the habitat the better your food supply for when your body is doing all that hard work of growing a forty kilogram foetus and later producing many litres of milk a day to feed this child for anything up to 20 months.

In December 2018, so perfectly in the middle of the rainy season when food availability is at its best, Mabuya gave birth to what is her sixth calf in total, but her first calf blind and back in the wild. At around 1,000 kilograms an adult black rhino does not have to worry about predators, one of the reasons they can actually survive in the wild when blind. But a wobbly forty kilogram calf? Easy pickings for hyena. Fortunately Mabuya’s experience as a mother enabled her to safely protected her calf through the early vulnerable months when it is not uncommon for the calves of even fully sighted mothers to lose a tail or and ear or their life to a hungry predator.

Just over two years on and Mabuya’s little girl is no longer so little. Standing close to her mother’s height already she is old enough to live independently but, as is normal for black rhinos, she is still very closely bonded to her mother and remains by her side at all times. She is unlikely to leave her mother until the next calf is born. An event we all look forward to.