He’s battle-worn and scarred. He has seen the best and survived the worst of humanity. Seha, a 10-year-old rhino bull is finally going to be released into the wild again after surviving a horrendous attack.
If you were a rhino, December of 2021 would have been your worst year-end, as 36 rhinos were slaughtered by poachers in just 24 hours. The carnage was felt globally, where the famous Kruger National Park is facing the strong possibility of local rhino extinction in just three years.
Now, from the depths of this tragedy, a glimmer of hope. His full name is Sehawukele – ‘God have mercy on us’- and fate brought him to another who doesn’t give up: Wildlife vet Johan Marais, founder of Saving the Survivors.
READ: The leader of the pack: a wildlife vet saving the ‘unsaveable’
Poachers had ripped his horns from his face, leaving Seha disfigured and in unimaginable pain. Local police found him stumbling along the fenced border of the reserve, and the owners of the land suggested he be shot.
The police were moved by Seha and reached out to well-known wildlife vet Marais, who has vowed to save every rhino that survives poaching. Over the following six years, Seha endured 30 operations.
Marais managed to give Sehawukele enough facial function for him to eat. But instead of hearing lions roaring across his natural habitat, he had to be kept in a paddock while receiving care.
Marais knew it was now time to make contact with Baby Rhino Rescue, an international organisation. Founder and president Helena Kriel asked Marais what his number one wish for Seha would be. ‘To get him back into the wild,’ came the answer.
Seha’s walk to freedom begins
Baby Rhino Rescue’s American team launched the Seha’s Fund campaign. They had to raise funds to transport him, but couldn’t send him back to the wild alone. His lineage is magnificent; he has prize genes, essential for the survival of the species. He was to go into the wild with two breeding females and within a few months, the team had raised the funds to buy Seha his mates.
On 24 January, Seha will once again feel the African soil beneath his feet in the Waterberg.
The moment of majesty
Seha will be darted and transported to a Limpopo reserve. He will leave behind his saddest moments and begin a new life.
On arrival, he will be taken to the area chosen for him, where the two females – Dakalo (Ducky) which means Joy; and Tshilidzi (Chilli), which is Grace; will meet him.
On his release, the Seha Legacy Fund will be launched, enabling the public to get involved by adopting this legend and his new family. Bush cameras will track the rhinos and allow us to see where Seha is sleeping. If the females fall pregnant, the Seha Legacy Fund will follow their gestation, up to the moment that a baby rhino is born.
Funds raised by the ongoing adoption of Seha’s family will enable Baby Rhino Rescue to donate funds to Saving the Survivors, supporting Marais’ vital work with badly injured by rhinos left to suffer by poachers.
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