Tracking Rhino’s in a South African Game Reserve

In 1935, the famed American novelist and world traveler, Ernest Hemingway published his non-fiction book The Green Hills of Africa that recounted a month he spent on a safari in East Africa. And while I can never condone the killing of any game animal, especially one as majestic as a rhino, the descriptions he provided of the pursuit of his prey as he made his way through the landscape of Tanzania was prominently in my mind as our guide pointed out several sets of footprints in the sandy bottom of a dry river bed.

“How do you know it’s a rhino and not another animal like an elephant or a hippo?” I asked as someone unfamiliar with game tracking. Apparently, the answer to that is quite simple. Both elephants and hippos have four toes, whereas rhinos have three – a large middle toe at the front with two smaller toes on the sides. That single feature allows their spoor to be easily distinguished from the other large-footed species in this part of Africa.

Our very small party of only two guests was spending 5 days in a 30,000-hectare private game reserve adjacent to the world-famous Kruger National Park in northwestern South Africa. With us were our two guides equipped with rifles and a first aid kit, and little else in terms of self-defense. Each day, our small group of four would leave our camp in a new direction and hike around for several hours spotting game. During this entire time, we had the reserve to ourselves. We didn’t see another human until we finally left the reserve to return to Pretoria. It was truly surreal.

Our guide immediately lowered his voice to a whisper and asked us if we wanted to track the rhinos to see if we could eventually spot them. Since we were downwind from them, there would be little chance of the animals sensing us if we kept our distance and remained quiet. We immediately said yes and the adventure began.

While we were nowhere close to the area where Hemingway tracked his own game around the Lake Manyara region of the East African Rift, that same sense of awe and adrenaline in the chase of the hunt was with us. It was difficult to maintain a sense of caution and stealth while simultaneously wanting to channel the energy and excitement into an all-out sprint through the river bed.