One day, Jamie Traynor from The Rhino Orphanage got a call to pick up a newly orphaned rhino, her name was Jamila.
She was very little and was attacked by a poacher with a machete while she was trying to protect her mom.
Staff will often blindfold and put earplugs on newly orphaned rhinos when they find a new one as it will reduce their stress. “When we pick them up, they don’t know what’s happening, and they’ve lost their mum.”
When a newly orphaned rhino comes to the orphanage, Jamie needs to spend a lot of time with them to gain their trust and get them to calm down a bit.
Since she was so small, Jamila stayed with humans a lot. So Mewie the cat who belonged to Jamie decided he would join in on the rhino babysitting.
“If we were sleeping in a room, Mewie would sleep there. If we went on a walk, he would join us there.”
Mewie was clearly interested in Jamila and was showing her attention, always trying to be with her. Jamila also responded well to this and a friendship began to blossom.
“I think Jamila really like the company, they were very cute together. To see a cat and a rhino together, I nearly died.”
See the full video of Jamie at The Rhino Orphanage:
Nandi seems to be the fun playful type:
“Nandi wants to always lie on top of you. Whenever I come over, she will lie so strategically that her head lands on my lap, and she’s got a GIANT head, but it’s amazing,” says Jamie Traynor from The Rhino Orphanage.
“It’s the best thing to be a rhino’s pillow”.
“They’re such special animals, the different personalities they have, they make you laugh all the time.”
Just like dogs, apparently, rhinos will come up to you and ask for belly rubs, “they’ll be standing, and then next thing, they’ll roll over,” how cute!
“Rhino’s need a lot of our help because the poaching has just sky-rocketed. So much has been put on a rhino’s horn and how ‘valuable’ it is when a rhino horn is made of keratin, which is the same as your hair and fingernails.
