A white rhino, known as Masalempini, and her calf in Mkhaya Game Reserve
The remaining rhinos
First, the slightest nub of an infantile horn emerges. Then eyes, timid and curious. Prodding the dust with a stumpy foot, the calf gathers confidence before skipping out from behind his mother’s enormous barricade of a rump.
Left: Mkhaya nature guide Bongani Mbatha stands before a pair of white rhino.
The calf makes a gentle panting sound – a contact call, to reassure his mother. Red-billed oxpeckers ride on the rhinos’ backs, hopping off to pluck ticks from around ears and undersides. Then the birds fuss and chirrup away, sending their hosts a signal that other creatures are nearby.
‘The mother’s name is Masalempini – that means Remains of the War,’ whispers nature guide Bongani Mbatha. ‘She is a white rhino born just after a time of heavy poaching, from 1988 to 1992. Perhaps that explains why she is so aggressive. She has hit vehicles many times in the past.’
Masalempini and her calf disappear into Mkhaya Game Reserve’s 10,000 hectares of dense bush, and our Land Rover bounces onwards up a dirt track. Antelopes are everywhere. Towering kudu raise their necks above magic gwary trees laden with sweet berries. Harems of impala circle in clearings, and tiger-striped nyala flick their ears behind thickets of acacia thorns.
A radio message, given in code to confuse potential poachers, lets Bongani know that more white rhino are close. ‘Shall we walk?’ he asks. ‘Just remember, if something happens, don’t try to run away. You can never outrun a rhinoceros.’
White and black species of rhino are abundant enough at Mkhaya to allow frequent sightings, as long as you search when they’re most active. In the dry southern-hemisphere winter, the rhino feed now, in the morning, and at dusk, hunkering down against temperatures close to 30°C at noon and zero at midnight.
Right: Maja Tsabedze and Ann Reilly ride out at dawn in Mlilwane
We creep in silence through the bush. Bongani is on high alert, feeling which direction the breeze carries our scent in, and sniffing for the earthy richness of fresh rhino dung.