Because rhinos need our help.
Hello
hello, my name is Shelley and I work at Port Lympne wildlife park in the UK (Kent). I look after 16 Black rhino, and 5 giraffe, although rhinos are truly where my heart lies.
I started the job 5 years ago, at the time i was grateful for any job at the park, however i was soon to be captivated by rhinos and they now rock my world, even when they play stubborn little monsters like today, and make me quite late home!
Last year I spent three months wages on a trip of a lifetime to Java and Sumatra, purely on a quest to see rhino!. A trip to Way Kambas, ticked the Sumatran rhino box, it was fantastic to see these gentle and very playful rhinos up close. One of the rhinos there 'Torgamba', was the animal that planted the very first seed to my trip away as he once was part of a breeding programme at Port Lympne, which was unfortunately unsuccessful and he was returned to Sumatra.
As for of the Javan rhino, my friends and i left Ujung Kulon National Park happy to of seen some very fresh foot prints, although i had this image of a guy walking ahead of us making the prints in the mud!
In May i will be attending the rhino workshop Busch gardens, is anyone else going?? Also if anyone's interested, there is a job opportunity at Port Lympne for a experienced rhino keep at the moment.
I started the job 5 years ago, at the time i was grateful for any job at the park, however i was soon to be captivated by rhinos and they now rock my world, even when they play stubborn little monsters like today, and make me quite late home!
Last year I spent three months wages on a trip of a lifetime to Java and Sumatra, purely on a quest to see rhino!. A trip to Way Kambas, ticked the Sumatran rhino box, it was fantastic to see these gentle and very playful rhinos up close. One of the rhinos there 'Torgamba', was the animal that planted the very first seed to my trip away as he once was part of a breeding programme at Port Lympne, which was unfortunately unsuccessful and he was returned to Sumatra.
As for of the Javan rhino, my friends and i left Ujung Kulon National Park happy to of seen some very fresh foot prints, although i had this image of a guy walking ahead of us making the prints in the mud!
In May i will be attending the rhino workshop Busch gardens, is anyone else going?? Also if anyone's interested, there is a job opportunity at Port Lympne for a experienced rhino keep at the moment.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rhishja on -
Hi Shelley -
Welcome to Crash! That baby in your photo is adorable :) I am really looking forward to hearing more about what it's like to work with rhinos.
16 Black Rhino - that's amazing! I would love to hear about their personalities, what special treats they like to eat, and what they like to do for enrichment!
Rhishja
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Permalink Reply by Shelley Eve on -
The baby in the photo is just over 2 years old now and will be leaving mum very soon. you may think that's a bit too soon as in the wild its at the age of 3-4 years, but we find it helps to speed up the our vital breeding programme. After a short break the mum can be introduced to our breeding male, and as for little one, she will join other rhinos of a similar age.
Its great fun working with rhinos, very hard work through the winter tho as all the rhinos come in every night. The summers are heaven, the rhinos stay in there huge grass paddocks all day and night, then our workload changes to constant feeding, browse cutting and of course mixing the rhinos for breeding.
Every one of our rhinos are different, some of them are extremely loving and really enjoy human interaction, if you tiggle their favourite spots they roll over like a dog. Then you get some that don't enjoy human contact, but still have bags full of personality. I never have one favourite, it would be impossible to choose, I do have a handful that are very close to my heart tho. We have a very old girl who was one of the first rhinos to join john aspinalls private collection in the 70's. Shes 39 this year and retired from the breeding programme, but she is so chilled out as everything is just old hat now.
John Aspinall used to love feeding the rhinos slabs of dark chocolate in a sandwich, the rhinos love it but obviously its not ideal. They do still get bread on occasions but now its used more as a control feed. We can use it to disguise medication, or if they are being stubborn they can be bribed with it and its also very handy as a distraction when we are introducing rhinos.
As for enrichment, every paddock has a wallow and plenty of logs, some for scratching and some for pushing around. As all our paddocks are linked together a great stimulation for them is to just move them all around, they love exploring all the different smells of a paddock they haven't been in for a while. Also even tho it said that they are quite solitary animals, our youngsters and teenagers love interacting with each other, sparing and cuddling up together.
shelley
xx
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Permalink Reply by Rhishja on
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Hi Shelley -
It must be getting close to the workshop in Busch gardens! We will love to hear all about it.
Would it be OK with you if I published the information about rhino enrichment on the savingrhinos.org website? I will include your name, of course.
People come to savingrhinos,org looking for enrichment information, and all I have so far is what is available on the IRKA website.
Rhishja
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Permalink Reply by Shelley Eve on
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Hello,
Yes the workshops getting very close, i am really looking forward to it.
Yep that would be fine for you to put that enrichment information on the website, i hope it is of some use to fellow keepers.
shelley
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