At first it was very difficult to capture rhino photos with the trail camera. They maybe weigh 2 tons, but to predict their movements on a 4000 hectare piece of land was literally finding the needle in the haystack. These two rhino cows walked by the camera purely by luck, their tracks showed they only sniffed the water and had no interest in drinking or mud wallowing.
Even in the dry season the waterhole that were the only water for miles was rarely visited by rhino’s and I realized that to use the trail cameras for an counter poaching effort I need to establish what the preferred environment for the rhinos in the area. Mud was always present on the rhinos and I soon realize that the cameras had to be set at mud holes not so much waterholes.
The perfect setting, thick red mud with an enclosed area surrounded with thorn bushes and it was not long before the trail camera caught a rhino and her calf wallowing to hearts consent.
The bliss of mud wallowing, first it cools down the massive beast and secondly the mud captures parasites to be scrapped off at the nearest rubbing pole.
Soon I discovered that if a female rhino visited a mud hole, dominant males will follow suit. Only two hours subsided and the dominant male in the area came to investigate, but not use the waterhole. The camera caught only two photos, witch indicates to me that the bull had no interest in mud wallowing and that his only concern was to find the female in heat he could smell in the mud.
With the trail camera I was able to set up a data base on all the rhinos in the area. Showing in this picture was a pregnant female that according to previous recordings were to give birth in the next 2 months. Visible is the huge girth of her already big bulk and I will be following her movements closely.
Once again the only sexual active bull rhino in the area came visit the mud hole to check on the messages that was left in the mud. He had no mud on him even in extreme heat condition and it was clear that he patrolled the mud holes to check on the availability of the female rhinos in his territory.
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