A three-week-old white rhino calf was trapped in the fork of a tree for eight hours after his mother was shot dead by poachers on a farm outside Brits.
Die Burger newspaper reported on Thursday that the calf ran into the bush and trapped his head in the fork of a tree after poachers shot his mother in the heart and head on Tuesday night.
The calf, which had been hit on the head with a panga, tried to free himself by burrowing into the ground, but his head swelled up when he tried to pull himself loose.
The owner of the farm, Neels van Rensburg, said when he found the rhino cow, Alpha, lying dead on her back on Wednesday morning all he could hear were the screams of the calf.
“You hear how the little one is screaming, you see he's stuck and he's in pain, but you can't do anything until the vet arrives,” Van Rensburg said. “All you can do is block your ears.”
Louis Greef, a vet from Thabazimbi, two helpers and a game ranger blocked the calf's ears and bound his eyes before spending half an hour freeing him from the fork of the tree and loading him into a trailer.
Another white rhino cow and her calf were shot on Van Rensburg's farm one month ago. – Sapa