Video: Behind the scenes of a rhino and elephant collaring

The chopper flying above his head had radioed in that they’d spotted a bull white rhino. The teams stood by as the pilot gave Simon the location of the darted rhino. They needed to act fast. As soon as the dart goes in, there’s no messing around. The team needs to find the rhino, help it down, position it correctly and then the procedure starts. The vet notched its ear and took blood samples while the Wildlife ACT Fund team fitted and adjusted the back leg collar.

In light of the recent surge in rhino poaching in South Africa, conservationists are looking for alternative ways to monitor and track rhino and this state-of-the-art back leg collar is one of the options being explored.

A few weeks ago I posted some images and a blog about the rhino and elephant collaring the Wildlife ACT Fund did on a reserve in KwaZulu-Natal. You can only really capture the emotion and intensity of this kind of work on video.

A huge thank you to David Ryan and his team at Rhino Africa who made this possible. I feel privileged to be part of a team that does such incredible work for conservation in Africa.