The veterinarians in South Africa have just transferred more than 30 young orphan rhinos to a sanctuary designed to keep animals safe from poachers who killed their mothers.
The measure took six weeks and required extraordinary planning, including the help of animal friends who accompanied the orphans.
"We cannot simply move them all at the same time and go 'boom, there is a new home'," said Yolande Van Der Merwe, who supervises her new home.
"You have to assume it very carefully because they are sensitive animals," she said.
Van Der Merwe, 40, manages the rhinos orphanage, who cares about orphaned calves by poachers, rehabilitates them and then releases them again in nature.
This month, after the old lease contract expired, the non -profit organization moved to larger facilities, in a secret location between games farms in the northern province of Limpopo.
Benji, a white calf that has only a few months was the last rhino in relocating.
At birth, the rhinos are small, no higher than an adult human knee, and incline the balance to about 20 kilograms (44 pounds).
But they eat a lot and quickly collect weight, globulating until half ton in their first year of life.
Given the recent loss of Benji, the staff was worried that he was scared during the process that saw him anesthetized and loaded in the back of a 4x4.
But fortunately, Benji's friend, Button The Sheep, was next to him throughout the movement, and his presence helped to ensure that everything went well.
"For the most part, their mothers have been hunched," said Pierre Bester, a 55 -year -old veterinarian who has been involved with the orphanage since its foundation 10 years ago.
"(All) come here, and you handle them differently ... you put them in the nurseries, you give them a friend and then face."
'Love and Care'
South Africa is home to almost 80 percent of the world's rhinos.
But it is also an access point for the poaching of rhinos, driven by the demand of Asia, where the horns are used in traditional medicine for their supposed therapeutic effect.
In the black market, rhino horns get tens of thousands of dollars.
According to government figures, more than 450 rhinos were caught in South Africa in 2021.
In the sanctuary, the orphaned calves are breastfed back to health by a team of caregivers who sometimes achieve 24 -hour shifts, sleeping in the same enclosure as animals to help them adjust.
"The rhinos have their calves on foot all day, 24/7, and that is the type of care they require," said Van Der Merwe.
"So we have to give that intense love and care to take them through trauma," he said, adding that some Younggles showed signs of post -traumatic stress disorder.
When they are sufficiently fit, animals are released again in nature. Up to 90 percent normally succeed.
In the new sanctuary, Benji and his friends enjoy greater enclosures with more space to wander.
Special transmitters are adjusted to monitor their movement as part of a variety of security measures to keep furtive hunters at bay.
The orphanage asked AFP reporters not to reveal their new location.
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