Best friends Daisy (the rhino) and Modjadji (the zebra) marvelled at Daisy’s new blanket that a generous donor sent in.
Undisclosed Location, South Africa (06 April 2023) – Daisy the rhino was sent a warm blanket so she can stay warm during the cold Lowveld winters. Her best friend Modjadji took a look at the blanket and gave her a snuggle of approval.
On the 9th of December 2021, the Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary team received a calf – now named Daisy – who was thought to be around 12 hours old. Discovered and rescued by the SANParks team during a routine operation in the Kruger, she could not stand, and her umbilical cord was still attached. The little calf was incredibly weak and extremely vulnerable.
The team rallied together to save this little baby’s life. This meant having a caregiver spend every second with her exactly like her mother would, feeding her hourly and watching her vitals while praying for a miracle.
Modjadji, a young zebra foal, was also rescued after the severe storms. Her name means ‘rain queen’, and she too is a little miracle.
The pair have been inseparable ever since! The Care for Wild team shared the adorable photo along with an update about the pair. They are getting to a point now, that they will move towards engaging with their own kind. A sad thought but a part of nature.
“As Daisy and Modjadji grow and mature they will naturally go their separate ways, become less dependent on each other and will need the company and social interactions of their own species. Daisy will join the rhinos and Modjadji will join the zebras as part of their individual rehabilitation and rewilding programs but for now, there’s no separating these two best friends. The empathy between these two animals warms are hearts every day.”
Petronel Nieuwoudt founded care For Wild Rhino Sanctuary in 2011, and just a few months later, she opened her home to the very first rhino orphan. A few years later, the Rhino Poaching crisis was at its height, and the Kruger National Park needed somewhere safe to send the orphans found in the park.
The rhino species is estimated to be less than ten years away from extinction, and South Africa is at the centre of the rhino poaching war. The Kruger National Park has seen a decline in white rhino populations of 75% since 2011. In 2014 SANParks joined forces with Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary and created a Memorandum of Understanding to safeguard this heritage and the species’ future by rescuing and protecting the orphans left behind.
All the orphans receive extensive care and rehabilitation before entering the rewilding and release programme. All rhinos who are released back into a natural ecosystem continue to be protected 24/7 by guards, as well as an elite K9 and Mounted Unit.
Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary works tirelessly to rescue, rehabilitate and rewild animals. Please consider making a donation towards the ongoing care and support of little Daisy and Modjadji, and others like them.
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