Saving Hope: Extraordinary effort to save rhino whose horns and face were hacked off

The horns and a large section of the rhino’s face were hacked off by poachers, a horrific injury that exposed flesh and bone. One South African veterinarian treating the mutilated animal was so distressed by the suffering that he had to step away, his eyes glassy with tears.

Then Dr Johan Marais, an equine and wildlife surgeon at the University of Pretoria, rejoined the extraordinary effort to save the life of the four-year-old rhino, now named Hope.

“You just can’t believe that somebody from our own species can do that to an animal,” Marais said of the gaping wound that exposed part of the rhino’s skull and narrowly missed her eyes.

On Monday, a team of veterinarians cleaned and dressed the injury before securing a fibreglass shield on what remained of the rhino’s face with wire stitches and steel screws drilled into the skull. Reporters watched the operation on the sedated, 1.8-tonne animal in a muddy enclosure on the edge of Shamwari Game Reserve, near the South African city of Port Elizabeth.

Hope’s caregivers seek to rally support for a story of survival amid the escalating poaching in South Africa, which harbours about 20,000 rhinos, roughly 90 per cent of the world’s population.

The South African government recorded more than 1,200 poached rhinos last year, reflecting growing demand in parts of Asia, where rhino horn is believed to have medicinal benefits. There is no scientific evidence to support that: The horn is made of keratin, a protein also found in human fingernails.