John petting Nicky, an orphaned 13 month old Black Rhino.

There are 3 orphaned black rhinos on Lewa. Anne and I met two of them, Nicky and Hope. Nicky is 13 months old and blind. He is an orphan because in the wild he couldn’t see to find his mother. Hope’s mother was poached when she was a week old. Her mother’s horn was worth $35,000 USD to the poacher who killed her and had a street value of $120,000 in places like Vietnam. The third was born to a blind mother and was being picked up by the rangers the day we met Nicky and Hope but hadn’t arrived yet.

The orphans at Lewa are not kept in a cage during the day. They have two full time nannies who follow them everywhere. At night they sleep in a Boma to protect them from predators.

Nicky is the larger rhino and Hope the smaller one on the bottom left.

Adult Black Rhino

A black rhino is an awesome animal. It is huge, aggressive and it prances. I don’t know how else to describe it. When it moves it looks like it is dancing across the rangeland. It will also charge just about anything, including your car, which they have been known to knock over. This one was charging zebra and impala but looked like it was just playing with them. The black rhino is possibly the most dangerous animal at Lewa and is also the most endangered.

On the other hand, a baby rhino is cute and friendly. Not cuddly exactly but…

I was petting Nicky and Hope came over to say, “Pet me too.”

After rubbing on Nicky and Hope’s backs and sides, they just collapsed and went to sleep. When I stopped, they wiggled a bit like they were asking for more.

Nicky and Hope sleeping peacefully as long as they were being rubbed.

Anne got into the act as well. Who could resist such cuties.

Anne and Hope.