Dead and Dying

Rhinoceros

The grass shifted as the baby rhino lumbered gleefully ahead of her mother. Another day.

Her mother called to her, a gentle noise that had her instantly scampering back. She nuzzled her mother gently, and received a huff as a reply.

The mother rhinoceros lowered her head and began grazing, contented and calm. Her calf sniffed curiously at a beetle, and it flew away in a rush, startling her.

After a bit of playing, the calf went to nurse on her mother, who did not object. She had been trying grass lately, but still preferred fresh milk over it.

A small sound came from the bushes, and the mother was instantly alert, scanning for danger, ears flicking back and forth and nostrils flared.

They'd had an encounter with another rhino, a large bull that had attacked her. Mother had fought him off but both were skittish and wary now.

Another sound came from the bushes, but this was something the calf had never heard in her short life: a loud bang that cut through the air, accompanied by a sharp smell.

The large rhino cow bellowed, a sound of pain and rage. Suddenly, strange creatures sprung from the bushes. They walked on two legs and had strange forelegs and each one had an extended foreleg that the sharp smell emitted from.

They crowded around the mother rhino, and the calf ran as fast as her short legs would carry her. Another creature stepped forward and had a loud thing in his hand that roared and hissed. The others held the mother down, and it lowered it down to her mother's face.

No. Not to her face. To her horns, the very same that had defended her and her calf against the rogue male.

A screeching, grinding sound filled the air, and the mother bellowed in pain. Her daughter pressed herself lower into the grass, watching in horror as blood sprayed.

The baby rhino cried, a weak, sad call, trying to understand the situation unfolding before her eyes. The mother called back, her cry just as weak.

The creatures were killing her. They must have been some sort of predators. The calf had always watched predators hunting down gazelle and wildebeest and zebra, but none came close while her mother was around. The calf realised that they were probably trying to remove her mother's key weapon so that it would be easier to kill and consume her.

Suddenly, all of the creatures rushed away, vanishing into the grasses as they had come. The baby waited one, two, three beats before scampering to her mother.

It was a bloody mess.

The mother rhino's face was full of scarlet liquid, and there were two large, gaping holes in her face.

No horns in sight.

The mother was breathing heavily, but her eyes fluttered open when she heard her calf approach.

The baby let out a plaintive cry, nuzzling and nudging her mother. Why wouldn't she get up?

The mother groaned, and the baby resigned, going around to drink some milk.

As she drank, the mother's breathing became more and more laboured. The calf came to lie next to her mother's head, and a low sound of comfort came from the mother, which seemed to cost her more energy.

The calf stayed by her mother's side, even as the large cow gave her last shuddering breath. Even as her body grew cold. Even as the day turned to night.

She didn't know what to do. At some point she for hungry and sucked the last drops of milk from her mother. Her mother wouldn't get up, and she always did what her mother said. So she stayed by her mother as the night grew colder.

She awoke to sounds in the grass around her. The two legged creatures were back. She cried out and scrambled back, but gentle arms picked her up and held on, even as she struggled and kicked.

She didn't want to leave her mother. But as the creatures put her into a large box and put the box into an even larger box with wheels, she stared at her mother's corpse, knowing that she would never see her again.

***

This story is, obviously, about one of the most common poaching incidents. Rhino horn is highly valued on the black market, some cultures considering it to have medicinal properties. There are alot of cases where rhinos are orphaned, and most die, either from being hunted or from starvation when their mothers are killed, or from not adapting to being orphaned and being raised by humans. Rhinos are often killed from blood loss and shock when their horns are sawn off, as it happens while the are alive and conscious. The fight against rhino poaching is still ongoing, and will be for a long time. The more people know about it, the more we can fight it.