On the search for the rhino

As planned, we headed north this week to search for those elusive rhinos. We began with a boat journey to an ethnic minority village. The river was really low and sometimes the boat had to be pulled upstream.  

Then we traveled to another village along a busy track through the forest. The rangers went by motorbike, whilst we walked with our two chocolate labradors. The remaining forest on the way was beautiful tall broadleaved evergreen forest with patches of bamboo. We heard Yellow-cheeked Crested Gibbons and Germain’s Peacock Pheasant as we walked along.

  

After a night in the village we headed deep into the forest. We surveyed an area near to where we had not found signs of rhinos before, back in December. Although the topography was steep, much of the forest in this part of the national park is better than forest we usually work in.

We were close to the northern border of the national park, at some points we could see through the trees across the river to the land outside the national park on the other side – recently converted to cashew plantations.

Each day we headed out towards swamps, searching for dung along the way. At the swamps we looked for footprints – evidence of the presence of rhinos in the area. However we found only prints of Gaur, Sambar Deer and Wild Pig.

  

Sarah and Bruiser had a particularly grueling day. Although they only traveled two kilometers, they were out of camp for eight hours – hacking their way through a hillside covered in spiny rattan palm (as modelled by Simon in the last photo).

 

So, no rhinos in this area. Although they had probably moved north from where local people expected them to be at this time of year, they had not strayed as far north as the  part of the national park where we surveyed this time. All the same, there’s no harm in being thorough. Next week we’ll head to the area just to the south of where we were this week, here’s hoping we find some fresh dung…