Mabuya

Last year Mabuya was attacked by poachers again – this time shot in the head and left essentially blind in both eyes. Fortunately this time her calf was found alive and well – even showing a bit of her mother’s fighting spirit by chasing the rhino monitors round and round a tree (young rhinos would usually run away).

Mabuya was held in bomas on both Bubye Valley and then Malilangwe where there were larger, more appropriate pens available. She received daily eye-drop treatment for many months in the hope that her eyesight would recover. After eight months there was no sight recovery – though she did appear to have a small amount of light perception ability through a small range. Because black rhinos are incredibly habitual animals and their primary senses are actually smell and sound it was decided that Mabuya should be given a chance to try and make it back in the wild.

She would not be the first blind black rhino to live wild – the Lowveld Rhino Trust has previously monitored two completely blind black rhino bulls. These bulls lived for years blind – it was poachers that were their demise eventually. Mabuya would be different though – these bulls had an advantage in that they went blind in an area they had been living in for years so they already knew well where their sources of water where and were familiar with all the other rhinos living in the area. Mabuya would have to learn all this from scratch.

Mabuya has been living wild for seven months now. She had some initial challenges but her fighting spirit overcame these and she has established a home range just like any other black rhino would. She has located all the water-sources within her new home and has chosen some of the best habitat available as her core area. To the casual observer you would actually be hard pressed to determine that she was even blind, she moves from bush to bush with casual ease while feeding – most likely smelling the various plants around her.