A win-win for endangered rhino
Thrilling Schotia game drive highlights the need to legalise the sale of animal horns
Rhino poaching is back in the spotlight with the sad news that 35 of these magnificent animals have been killed at the Kruger National Park in the first two months of this year, once again thrusting the debate over the legalisation of the sale of rhino horns into the spotlight.
One of the most compelling – and poignant – reasons why the sale of rhino horns should be legalised can be found during a game drive at Schotia Private Game Reserve, a low on frills but high on thrills wildlife experience close to Addo Elephant National Park.
Sadly the park, host to a plethora of game, also played host to Bonnie and Clyde, a rhinoceros couple which met the tragic and utterly avoidable fate of so many other rhinos in South Africa – and that after surviving a poaching incident nine years before they met their demise.
In the first incident, the pair were professionally darted and had their horns removed before the poachers fled in a helicopter, without first administering the vital antidote. Bonnie, who was pregnant, aborted the foetus and never managed to become pregnant again.
Then, in 2023, the pair were savagely attacked and this time killed, again for their horns. All that remains of the couple are piles of bones, the remains of these magnificent animals lying just metres from one another. A truly sad reminder that man’s greed knows no bounds.
Many game rangers and owners of game reserves believe that the butchering of rhinos could be prevented if trading in rhino horns was legalised. Under such a scenario, rhino horn stockpiles could be sold off, flooding the market and making the rhino more valuable alive than dead. A win-win situation then – people who stupidly believe that rhino horns are aphrodisiacs can have as much of the product as they can afford, and the rhino population goes off the endangered list.
On a much happier note, low on frills merely means that the Schotia experience puts the game viewing experience in a much more pocket-pleasing category than most other game reserves in the area, which are simply financially unviable for most South Africans.
At Schotia, you will be treated to one of the best game experiences ever. Not only that, but an evening meal under a boma, is also included in the cost. The food is great, and while the booze may not flow as freely as it does at other game reserves, two drinks of your choice are included in the experience. Your overnight accommodation may not have electricity but it does have en-suite facilities, a luxurious touch in a complete and thoroughly enjoyable back to nature experience.
And while self-drive safaris have many advantages, sitting back and letting someone else do the driving every now and then is a real treat.
We arrived at Schotia reception around 2.30pm where luggage is checked in before you set off on your first game drive at 3pm. There’s a tea, cake and loo stop at around 5pm, followed by an evening game drive until 7pm, when there’s a break for a buffet dinner. That is followed by a night drive to your accommodation, where you enjoy a night in the bush before a morning game drive followed by breakfast.
As mentioned there is a plethora of game at Schotia – we saw so much it was almost impossible to keep count, but we did enjoy a rare sighting of an Aardwolf, as well as spotting all five of neighbouring Addo’s five elusive lions within the space of just a few hours.
On top of that, our vehicle was surrounded by a pride of Schotia lions during the after- dinner part of our experience – in fact we saw four of the Big Five under the cover of darkness and in the space of less than an hour.
Unlike Addo, you will also enjoy giraffe encounters at Schotia, and might even enjoy the thrill of having your vehicle charged at by an unpredictable buffalo. As well as the Big Five, Schotia is home to crocodiles and hippos, our group enjoying a sighting of the latter going for a late night stroll shortly after we had seen the lions.
Bringing our sightings to a thrilling close for the day, three elephants were enjoying a late night drink at the waterhole close to our accommodation.
But that, as the saying goes, was not all. The next morning’s game drive gave us yet more great sightings - an elusive aardwolf walking in front of our vehicle, a large herd of sable antelope soaking up the morning sun, cute warthog families creating a dust storm as the played around a wildebeest and two of Addo’s lions roaring to each other as they woke up.
Put Schotia on your bucket list of things to do – and, sad though it may be, pay tribute to Bonnie and Clyde as you drive past their mortal remains.
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Not sure why this keeps coming back every year or so, it’s a stupid idea.