Later on, STS expanded our focus to include all endangered wildlife, like elephants, lions, wild dogs and cheetahs. These are all large mammals that are under threat and either get poached directly for some of their body parts, or are caught by accident in poacher snares. The biggest challenge working with animals, like elephants, rhinos and giraffes that have sustained a poaching injury, is to be able to treat these wounds effectively when they're so large! One has to think completely out of the box, as you cannot confine these animals to a small stable afterwards. You must change their dressings or bandages daily and treat them with antibiotics daily.
There has been a downward trend in the number of rhinos poached over the last few years, and the reason for this is the dwindling rhino population. For instance, Kruger National Park had 10,500 white rhinos in 2008, and now that number has diminished to less than 1,000.
Apart from treating injured rhinos, we aim to start a breeding project with white rhinos, using one of our survivors called Seha. In the next livestream, I will introduce him and hopefully everyone will be able to see him! Although he is still a wild rhino, I can approach him, especially when he is eating. We will also talk more about what methods we use to treat these facial injuries on rhinos, as well as how difficult it is to put a cast.
We need to get everyone all working together for the betterment of our planet and the protection of biodiversity, like rhinos.
