In the past 40 years, the black rhino population in Africa has dwindled significantly. Today, fewer than 5,000 rhinos remain. With your help, Greater Good Charities is working to protect these endangered animals.
Our team works closely with Saving the Survivors (STS), a wildlife veterinary charity that provides veterinary services to wildlife across Africa. Established in 2012, their work ranges from the treatment of rhinos, lions, and elephants that have fallen victim to poachers, to breeding programs of many other endangered species.
Because of your donations supporting our signature program Project Peril, STS is able to rescue injured and snared animals and monitor their populations with tracking collars.
Goose the Rhino
One such animal is Goose, a black rhino. Goose was first treated by the vets in Kruger National Park in September 2018 after she was shot in the foot. SANParks requested assistance from STS due to her very severe foot injury. Initially, the foot was very swollen, had lost more than one-third of the sole, and had a piece of bone visible, penetrating through the surface of the foot. There was a clear infection in this particular bone and the soft tissue, probably due to the gunshot wound. The most significant finding, though, was the extensive fractures of the distal foot.
Between September 2018 and June 2020, Goose was treated a total of 20 times. First, she received a combination of antibiotics, medical-grade honey, and silver dressings. A cast was also applied to the distal limb, which helped her move with a lot more ease. However, she walked “through” that cast within two weeks! To help, STS was able to add three layers of elephant and buffalo skin to the bottom of the cast to make it more durable. Luckily, this seemed to buy the team more time and stretched the treatments to once every four to five weeks.
While Goose’s mobility improved over the course of treatment, she was still fairly lame without the cast. However, a life-long cast was not an option for Goose, so in March 2020, the STS team decided to take the cast off and monitor her condition.
Thank You!
Goose is currently doing well, and plans are being made to relocate her to a grass camp, introduce her to a male and have the two of them breed.
Greater Good Charities and the STS team could not have done this without you. Thanks to your regular donations, our programs and partners ensure endangered animals all over the world are safe from poachers and other threats. Together, we can save endangered animals and help them thrive.
