When the College’s pilot was called by Manyeleti Reserve to assist in tracking down an injured white rhino, he could never have predicted the extraordinary chain of events that unfolded…
Flying over the dam in the vicinity of where the rhino had last been seen, the pilot was confronted with an unbelievable sequence of events.
Five hyenas had trapped the rhino cow in the dam and were launching repeated attacks on her and were doing their best to kill her in the dam.
They were biting her at the base of her tail and grabbing her by the ear and pushing her head underwater trying to drown her.
He proceeded to do a number of low-level passes over the scene for at least 45 minutes to chase the hyenas off the animal and keep them at bay while the field rangers rushed to the area.
He managed to keep them off until the field rangers were about five minutes away and then unfortunately the rhino tired and they managed to push her head under the water one more time and drowned her.