The saddest news is that Themba, the injured male rhino from Kariega Game Reserve, died on Sunday morning.
The saddest news is that Themba, the injured male rhino from Kariega Game Reserve, died on Sunday morning.
We went to see him on Saturday and he seemed to be holding on, and his blood test results from last Tuesday indicated that he was in some way winning the fight. But observation of his condition meant that we went to see him on Sunday, unsure whether or not he should be euthanised.
Will Fowlds decided to assess Themba's behaviour, and for his efforts Will was chased on a few occasions. Because Themba demonstrated such spunky behaviour, he had a treatment and we left him. The last time I saw him alive, he was standing in this beautiful landscape, with the sun shining.
In order to relieve the pain from his leg, he went into the watering hole, as he had done in the past. Sadly, he just didn’t have the strength to pull himself out of the water and apparently drowned. The people at Kariega are in shock, I am in shock. We were all crying, I am crying now writing this.
For me he was a personal symbol of the ability to fight against all odds. Saturday I wrote on the update video that my hope was that he would be a success story. The update video was about to go out on Sunday when I got the call from Will. I know that he is particularly affected by this turn of events. He was weeping aloud while talking to me about this. Ironically the name Themba means hope.
For the latest news from veterinarian Dr Will Fowlds, visit his blog at http://williamfowldsdaytoday.blogspot.com/
