The White Rhino Saga - Ian Player
The White Rhino Saga - Ian Player
Introduction by Julian Rademeyer, author of Killing for Profit
‘A book for every lover of the wild’ – Alan Paton, in the foreword to the original edition
Softcover: Very Good +
Jonathan Ball Publishers: 2013
ISBN: 9781868425969
The White Rhino Saga – back in print after more than 30 years - is more relevant than ever as our rhino population faces a deadly poaching onslaught. With a new introduction by Julian Rademeyer and a ‘missing chapter’ never before published, a new generation of readers can enjoy and learn from the extraordinary story of how the white rhino was saved from extinction four decades ago.
From Ian Player’s first visit to the Umfolozi Game Reserve in South Africa’s Zululand in 1952, the salvation of the white rhino from extinction became an obsession with him. The white rhino, the second largest animal in the world, had roamed over the southern half of the African continent in large numbers during the nineteenth century and before. By the 1960s fewer than five hundred remained, confined to 72 000 acres, not nearly enough territory for them to remain healthy and alive.
The problem confronting Ian Player and his coworkers was twofold: how to repopulate the game reserves of Africa where white rhinos had once lived, and how to supply white rhinos to the zoos of the world. The techniques for capturing and transporting the huge animals are fascinating.
The White Rhino Saga, Alan Paton writes in his foreword, ‘is a book for every lover of the wild. The danger of captures, the disappointments, the ultimate successes, makes a splendid tale.’ It is a tale of adventure, of Africa, of animals – and of the man who set out to save them.
The White Rhino Saga is written by Ian Player, who was a South African international conservationist (and also the brother of professional golfer Gary Player). In 1952, he became a Game Ranger and between 1955 and 1964, he worked in Umfolozi Game Reserve, working with southern white rhinoceros. He tells the story of how he and a small group of dedicated game wardens saved this species from extinction during the 1960s. The white rhinoceros, the second largest animal in the world, had roamed over the southern half of the African continent in large numbers during the nineteenth century and before. By the 1960s however, fewer than five hundred remained. Ian Player records the struggle to capture and relocate the few remaining rhinoceros to reserves and parks around the world. It took dogged determination, but fifteen years later their progeny were repatriated back to South Africa where they populated various reserves.
The book has groups of black and white photos bound into sections of the text, as was common in books from that era. Every single one shows a rhino either being sedated, or after it has been sedated. Ian Player was the person who first worked out how to safely sedate and transport huge animal such as rhinoceros, who can weigh several tons. However I found these photos oddly depressing. I have entered this first edition on the Goodreads database, but it may be less upsetting to read the kindle version, which was reissued in 2013, and probably does not have the dozens of photos.
This is clearly a riveting story of success, with a few heartbreaking moments. However, although it has been on my shelves for a long time, I cannot bring myself to read it properly (which is why it remains unrated). The reason is simple. The hard-won reprieve for the white rhino is likely to be short-lived.
Poachers have continued to decimate the population of white rhinos in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. The estimated total population anywhere of southern white rhinoceros in 2021 is 15,940, which sounds a respectable number, but represents a decline of 24% since the previous census published in 2015. The warning bells are sounding, and we have the precedent of their close relative, the northern white rhinoceros.
There are now just two northern white rhinoceros remaining in the world, and they are both female. They live in Nanyuki’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy, in Kenya, under constant protection from poachers. The last remaining male died on March 19th 2018, effectively rendering the entire subspecies of white rhinos extinct. The northern white rhino was once abundant across Central Africa but staggering rates of illegal hunting for its horn have already led to its almost certain extinction in the wild.
Will dedicated conservationists continue to be able to save rhinos, in spite of the continuous loss of habitat, and constant poaching, because of the high illegal demand for rhino horn (for commercial purposes and use in traditional Chinese medicine)? I feel time may be running out. It has been proved that southern white rhinoceros caught in the wild will readily breed in captivity, given appropriate amounts of space and food, as well as the presence of other female rhinos of breeding age. Many rhinoceros which we see living in wildlife parks and zoos today are a part of a cooperative breeding programme to increase population numbers, and maintain genetic diversity without taking them from the wild. Perhaps this then is the future for rhinos, and enabling them once again to live in their natural habitat in the 21st century, is just a pipe dream. I hope they and other large animals are not doomed through humanity’s greed, but I fear they may be.
Ian Player died in 2014.
