Rhino Orphan, Baby Bula Enjoys Milk Bottles, a Weigh-in & Mud Baths

A new day with rhino orphan Bula!

Adine has been assisting from afar, as she has been travelling. She has been on the phone with wildlife vet Dr Peter Rogers and Saving the Survivors veterinary assistant, Dot to give support and advice regarding the treatment and care of Bula as the orphan rehabilitates at HESC (Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre).

Adine will be back in Hoedspruit this week, but fortunately Dot has captured beautiful moments on camera for us to share with you.

In today’s video, we see Bula getting a weigh-in and enjoying a pampering session. Dot collected day from the road and gave Bula a full-body clay mud mask, which made him fall asleep quickly…

Bula enjoys a diet of milk formula, teff, a little dung from other rhinos and vegetation around him. He has a good appetite and drinks his bottles well. Dot believes he is possibly going through a growth spurt and is teething as he has shown signs here and there of agitation, rubbing his lips, gums, sides of his face and horn on anything he can.

Bula is a seven-month-old calf whose mother was an old cow who could not produce enough milk to feed him, and since passed away.

Taking care of a baby rhino is hard work and involves round-the-clock monitoring and all hands on deck. Adine offered to assist with the new orphan, joining a nurse from Saving The Survivors and Dr Johan Marais at HESC.

Adine got stuck in trying to get Bula to take a milk bottle as the calf would need fuel and sustenance to stay strong. He was blindfolded to keep him calm, as this experience can be very traumatic for animals. Adine has continued to visit and spend time with Bula, ensuring he drinks his bottles and settles into his new life at the rehabilitation centre down the road from us at HERD.

We have shared about Adine’s work in rhino rehabilitation briefly before, and while this chapter of Adine’s life has mostly been in the past, before she founded HERD, she was called on recently to return to the side of this animal species she will always love and cherish.

Read more

https://herd.org.za/blog/herds-adine-...

https://herd.org.za/blog/an-update-on...

You are welcome to donate to help little Bula through PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_...

And find out more about HESC here: https://hesc.co.za