How Do You Give A Full-Grown Rhinoceros Its Medicine? Very, Very Carefully

Here’s a good rule of thumb for messing with a rhino’s eyes: Don’t. But if you have to, make sure you have a plan, even if it’s wild. 

“It was a completely ridiculous idea to us,” Daniel Terblanche told The Associated Press (AP). He's a security manager who works with Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. “But without trying all of the things that we could to rectify that situation, we would have been in trouble, I think.” 

The situation in question involved a southern white rhinoceros named Thuza. Thuza was one of a number of animals brought to Hwange as part of a program. The program is meant to bring threatened species back to Zimbabwe. For the program to work, all the rhinos needed to stay healthy. But Thuza had an eye infection that threatened to blind him.   

“With this few animals in this location in Africa, it was essential that we save all of them,” Angi Lacinak told the AP. “A blind rhino is a dead rhino. So no matter what it took, we were going to go over there and try.” Lacinak is the co-founder of a group that cares for large animals.    

Lacinak came up with a plan to lure Thuza into a cage with his favorite treats. As he munched away day after day, the team slowly got closer to his eyes. They sprayed near them with a water bottle. That was designed to prepare Thuza for taking eye drops. With time, Thuza realized that the humans near him while he ate were no threat. He allowed them to get the meds into his eyes. 

“They’re consistently getting the medications into his eyes,” Lacinak said. “The rhinos are just thriving now.”    

Thought Question: Think about a time when you used a creative idea to fix a problem. How did it help, and what did you learn?

Gif of African rhinoceros from Giphy.