Hunting the Big 5 with a Bow: The Rhinoceros a.k.a “The Rhino”
Hunting the Big 5 with a Bow: The Rhinoceros a.k.a “The Rhino” By Tony Roettger
How long has it been since you have even seen or heard the word “Rhinoceros?” It seems no one calls them that anymore; I couldn’t even spell it at first. We just say “Rhino.” The rhino is one of Africa’s Big Five and arguably the one of the most controversial of the Big 5 due to the immense poaching problem on the continent of Africa. Thanks to so many anti-poaching efforts, there are still rhinos around and thriving. Also, a thanks to SCI as there are ways to hunt them that can still count towards your awards with methods that allow you to dart or green hunt a rhino. The reality is the rhino overall is just a cool animal, let’s start with some facts about them:
Rhinos have one of the smallest brains compared to their size - they stand about 5’ 2” tall and weigh 3,080 – 7,920 lbs. For comparison, the Cape Buffalo weighs as much as 2000lbs making the rhino an easy 1000lbs more.
There are often two main recognized species in Africa.
The white and the black however, within the white rhino is:
The Northern White Rhino and the Southern White Rhino
A Rhino’s skin can heal faster than any other animals skin making it part of some studies to figure out how and why this happens.
The Rhino’s skin looks like armor (I always thought it was hard) and is about 1- 2 inches thick but is quite soft and is susceptible to sunburn.
As I continue to attempt to achieve the Africa 29 and the Africa Big 5 awards through SCI with a bow and arrow, the rhino is a must hunt. What I didn’t expect is how few people have hunted a rhino with a bow. I assumed it happened a lot more, but I was quite wrong. The result was it took a lot more planning and work to figure out how to do it with bow and arrow because you can’t just go to the archery shop and get an arrow with a dart on it. You have to find an arrow you can configure somehow to add the dart to bring down this giant animal. The other assumption I made is that darting would be much easier than actually harvesting the rhino, which I was also wrong.
The reality of the situation I got myself in changed each hour and then minute right up to the point when I finally stalked within range of a rhino where we almost pulled the entire plug on the hunt because a concern came up that the arrow with the dart would kill the rhino due to possible penetration. A debate ensued as I was about to draw my bow on a rhino which resulted in even further limitations on where I could place the arrow into the animal.
In the end the only safe and effective spot to shoot the rhino with a dart from a bow ended up being the rump area. Now that sounds easy and simple until you unpack that process further. There are two muscles on the rump of a rhino, one on each side of the tail but these muscles are a bit narrow. Now, add on that the dart itself is 3 ½” maybe 4” long at the most, the skin of the rhino is over 1” thick so mathematically this all works, right up to the point where you start talking trajectory, flight, and angles.
Geometry is my favorite math subject, so are things like trajectory and flight. Think about this: an arrow (bullets also) fly in an arc; add on that the arrow itself is straight within 0.003” but as it leaves the bow the arrow arcs/bends even more as it is launched. There is a point where the arrow flattens but do you know where that is on the flight path?? Most do not even think about it until you are trying to shoot a rhino…..with a dart….where the skin is probably 1/4 to 1/3 the length of the dart itself and you need the arrow to hit perfectly at a 90 degree angle to insure it does not slide up, down, sideways, etc. which would cause the arrow and dart to miss the muscle it needs to land in to effectively inject the vitamins and other stuff to allow you to put your hands on this amazing animal. So, there is a lot happening on this hunt which made it even more amazing. This gives you all some background before we get into the ‘hunt’ story of the stalk of the Southern White Rhino with a bow.
The Hunt:
Pieter Viviers of Marupa Safaris and I spent five plus years talking about the fact that one day I was going to need to shoot a rhino with a bow. We talked logistics and cost and just how we were going to do it. In the end Pieter figured it out with these darts that weighed the same as a broadhead (125gr in this case). We were able to buy them from the store locally in South Africa. He took a few arrows I had and rigged up a way to heat tape these darts to the arrow and we began practicing. We practiced with decent results out to 40 yards. That seemed to be the max range we were comfortable with.
The day of the hunt was a cool Northern Cape morning with some light frost. I knew we were heading over to Alexanders place. Now, Alexander is quite a guy, think of Kevin Costner in Yellowstone. This guy lives his entire day, everyday protecting rhinos. He literally is fighting off poachers and so many factors every single day. He has zero tolerance for messing around and not following his instructions and I was not about to mess around with him either. I looked him in the eye as he told me very specifically what we were going to do and how we were going to do it all the while realizing he was thinking I was nuts and this was never going to work.
The sun had risen, the instructions given and off we went to find some rhinos. We spotted them around, but they were a bit sparce. It is always amazing in the African bush when it is cold how even a giant animal seems to just disappear until the heat of the day comes up and they start showing themselves like magic. We managed to find two bulls mulling about under a tree, nibbling grass. The stalk was busted before we got within 250 yards. You see, rhinos cannot see well but they feel and hear well. Their feet can feel you walking so to stalk one was going to be an interesting challenge.
Stalk after stalk after stalk was blown until we just needed a break. Hours had gone by and a few miles walked for sure. My wife Kate, always a trooper on these hunts, was sticking with it as well. She was not going to miss the chance to touch a rhino. Once our Fanta’s were drank it was back to finding some rhino. We thought we would start looking at waterholes since the heat of the day was coming on.
The first water hole we saw had some rhino in it. We made a plan based on some trees in the right spot to cover us, some Kalahari sand to quiet us and the wind in our favor. This might be the opportunity we had been looking for. So off we went walking in a single file line, three of us, Alexander, me and GC. We got close to the water and two bulls broke out fighting so the dust was flying everywhere which helped us get a bit closer. The fight also resulted in the bulls getting even closer to us, which was great. As we were walking I felt some uneasiness with Alexander, I wasn’t sure what he was thinking but it was clear Alexander had something on his mind.
Alexander was not a believer in range finders, he had an eye for distance, and I wasn’t going to argue with him, but it was the other question that stopped us all in our tracks as I was about to draw my bow. He was worried the rhino dart could kill the rhino as he was beginning to think the skin and muscle was not enough to stop the arrow from penetrating. This meant the broadside shot of putting an arrow in a muscle above and slightly in front of the rhinos shoulder was off limits. Which also meant, the only shot I had left was the rump muscle from the back of the rhino, which was an even smaller target. As the two Afrikaans guys (GC and Alexander) discussed this, it was agreed that we would be ok with the rump target. Through all this the two rhinos had gotten squirrely and moved a bit, but also moved to show just their rumps as they were about to leave the area because they knew something was up.
Alexander says, “about 45, maybe 50 meters.”
Tony: “meters, that’s longer than yards. My max yards were 40, now what do I do?”
Alexander: “Take the shot, you are not getting any closer, can you do it?”
Tony: “Sure….”
All the time thinking this is a long way, good thing I like math as I am trying to calculate meters to yards and use my best judgment to what I think the distance is and through all this, I drew my bow. I had the right-side rump in my site and held a little higher on that 60-yard pin that I only use in practice on occasion. I still think there was a moment that Rhino caught my eye as he turned his head to look back. I can still see the green pin on the high side of that rump muscle as I squeezed the trigger on my release, both eyes open as I watched that arrow flex as it left, then arc the entire way in what seemed like slow motion to then impact absolutely perfectly into that muscle with a “pop” as the arrow hit, medicine injected and rhino off and running.
The call for the truck took me out of my focused moment. We quickly followed the rhino as he trotted along, the truck arrived and we hopped on. Then we followed him until he slowed down. We quickly got off the truck and walked up to a staggering however many thousands of pound animal he was, and Alexander says in his Afrikaans accent, “Sir, go grab him by the front horn with one hand and cover his eye with the other and steer him as he walks.” I was like, “sure?” and I did it and what an amazing experience was had. To walk with a wild rhino that was darted is about the coolest thing ever. We walked, everyone filmed, Kate got in also and was amazed. Then the rhino slowed, and he tipped over a bit and the work began.
Measuring his horn, taking blood samples, taking pictures, and just enjoying the moment for the fifteen minutes you get with them. Once the time is up, we had to go jump on the truck as the vitamins were administered and within 30 seconds the rhino was up and, on his feet, looked at us and then trotted off into the African bush.
What an incredible experience.
***Caption for Rhino Celebration…
After every harvest myself and the Ph’s at Marupa Safaris do a Jägermeister shot to celebrate our success, as there is a German prayer on the label of the bottle. “This is the hunter’s badge of glory, That he protect and tend his quarry, Hunt with honour, as is due, And through the beast to God is true.” Pictured from left to Right GC, Kate, Me, Pieter.