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Rhinos at the Epako Lodge |
There they are! Four white rhinos, surrounded by a herd gnus and few other antelopes. The thick-skinned animals are not being disturbed by our presence. Since long they’re used to be standing in the spotlight of attention. In the group all remain very quiet, despite this being the first white rhinos we are seeing in Africa.
“A year ago we had two males”, the ranger is explaining. One of them died after a fierce fight among the two of them. Remaining now are one bull, two females and a calf. It is no coincidence that we can see them near the waterhole of Epako Lodge. There was too little rain this summer, so that food became scarce in the vicinity of the lodge. Therefore additional grass is being supplied here for the animals.
We are fascinated. Though the rhinos can’t escape into the open wilderness we had hardly believed any more that we would be meeting them in the semi-open space.
If only there were not all these gnus! I liked seeing them, I was looking forward especially to those species - But now they should be stepping aside a bit so we can have a free view of the rhinos at last.
Next morning, things got even better: Not only do we find again mother rhino and calf in the huge space of Epako Lodge, we even see them at the time of nursing.
In Order to make this happen, the mother has to rest on her side. Then the calf has to lie down to get at the milk. Otherwise, the mother might get injured. We are fascinated - but this knows everybody.
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