All text and images credited to the incredible folks at Sheldrick Wildlife Trust who take such great care of Maxwell day and night.
Maxwell was born on Tuesday, February 14, 2006.
The 6th February 2007 began as an ordinary day, but ended up anything but ordinary due to the discovery of blind yearling baby rhino in the Park forest about 3 kms. from our Headquarters. The elephant Keepers, who were out in the forest as usual with their charges, heard the rhino crying, and went to investigate. He was running around aimlessly, there being no sign of his mother.
The KWS Rhino Unit was summoned, and together they and our Keepers monitored the little rhino until dusk from a good distance so as not to disturb him or the possibility of his mother returning, and when there was still no sign of the mother, something had to be done to spare him from being taken by predators during the night. By calling him with the rhino “come” sound (a soft exhalation of breath), he followed the Elephant Keepers and KWS Rangers for the 3 kms until near the Trust buildings, when he spooked at the strange sounds, blindly charging all and sundry and almost downing Daphne in the process who had to resort to diving into a nearby bush!
7th February, 2007
By now it was quite obvious that he was completely blind in both eyes, for both his eyes were opaque. He was then physically overpowered, which took all the strength of about l0 men and although just a year old, he could certainly pack a punch and was immensely powerful. With legs tied he was then carried on the elephant Rescue Tarpaulin to a vacant stable, where he was released, and proceeded to almost demolish the timbers of the stable. Apart from his eyes, he was in good physical condition, so he could not have been without his mother for long. (Her disappearance and ultimate fate still remains a mystery.)
We named the little rhino “Maxwell”, "Max" for short, which somehow seemed to suit him. For three full days, no-one could set foot in his stable, he was so wild and fierce, but he soon understood that milk and water was available at the stable door.
It being essential that he undergo a course of injectable antibiotic to forestall problems brought about by trauma and shock, only Robert Carr-Hartley was courageous enough to risk going in, and having restrained the sharp end of the rhino by hanging onto his head, some reinforcements then followed to enable Robert to administer the antibiotic! For the next three days, the same process had to be repeated, and everyone heaved a sigh of relief when it was over.
By now, however, the little rhino had calmed down sufficiently to enable one of the braver Keepers to venture in with him, and since then he has been very amenable, as long as not suddenly startled, enjoying being fondled on the belly and head, as do all rhinos. The next challenge was to move him into Magnum’s vacant Stockade, which abuts that of Shida and this was accomplished without too much difficulty.
An assessment of the cause of Max’s blindness has revealed that he is suffering from bilateral cataracts, so surgical intervention to remove the cataracts is planned for Wednesday 14th March, when Dieter Rottcher returns from Germany. Dieter will oversee the anesthetic being extremely experienced in this field whilst the eye surgery will be undertaken by one of Kenya’s top Eye Specialists, Dr. Schwendemann. We keep our fingers crossed that we will be able to restore at least some vision to little Max, for a bull rhino has to fight for territory and rank, and must be able to see his opponent.
Towards the end of the month we decided to try and take him out for a short spell, which he enjoyed immensely, but when it came time to return him to the Stockade, this proved very difficult and he was having none of it! Yet again he had to be physically carried back, something to which he strongly objected! Since then, we have not dared let him out again, but should he regain some vision, this will follow.
21st March 2007 saw the cataract operation on the left eye of our blind baby rhino, “MAXWELL or Max”, found abandoned in the Nairobi National Park forest a month ago in February. Since he is about one year old, it is very doubtful that he was actually born blind for had that been the case, it is unlikely that he would have been in such good condition. Having verified that he was suffering from “bilateral cataracts” in both eyes, we all stood by with bated breath, as our Vet, Dr. Deiter Rottcher, handled the anaesthesia and Kenya’s top Eye Specialist, Dr. Peter Schwendemann prepared his instruments.
Following the surgery to remove the cataract from Max’s left blind eye, which was undertaken by one of Kenya’s top eye Specialists, Dr. Schwendermann on the 21st March, sadly the cornea clouded over again, so Max remains blind. Apparently the pigment in animal eyes often reacts in this way, being a lot denser than that of a human.
However, unless one knew it, one would not at first notice that Max was blind in both eyes, for he romps around his Stockade, never colliding with the walls, avoiding his green browse stacked in one corner, and his water tub in another. He sleeps on a soft bed of straw at the far end, and in the middle of his Stockade, he has a little mudbath, which he thoroughly enjoys, and after which he gets particularly playful, when his Keeper has to take evasive action by climbing the platform for fear of being “downed”.
He enjoys his food, responds to his name, to come to the door of his Stockade for a little loving and to take his milk and porridge, and he also enjoys his range cubes and additional supplementary feed which contains, in addition, to extra vitamins and minerals, Coconut, Avocado and Macadamia pith, the oil having been extracted for human consumption. So, apart from loss of vision, Max wants for nothing and is a very happy and contented little rhino, enjoying a good life, though denied the freedom that vision would allow him.
June, 2007
The highlight of each day is when Shida approaches, something he does more often now, since he is very interested in MAXWELL. Somehow, Max can sense that Shida is on his way long before he actually arrives, and positions himself at the Stockade door to enjoy a gentle tussle through the bars. Shida’s dung has been placed in Max’s Stockade for many weeks now, so they know one another well.
In fact, since Shida has never displayed any signs of the usual rhino aggression on encountering a male outsider, we suspect that he and Max knew one another from the wild situation before Max became an orphan, since he was retrieved from Shida’s territory in the Park forest behind the Trust Headquarters. Shida is now completely independent of his Keepers – virtually just another “wild” rhino inhabitant of Nairobi National Park, who comes and goes as he pleases, but spends more time than before at home now, Max being the draw.
Today, on the 11th January 2008 we found out once and for all that MAXWELL's blindness is beyond help. On arrival in Kenya Dr. Antony Goodhead, a specialist ophthalmologist from the Johannesburg Animal eye Hospital, with years of experience working on wildlife and domestic animals throughout the world, noticed that MAXWELL's eyes where sunken and smaller than he would have liked to see and this disturbed him, suggesting additional problems over and above cataracts.
After extensive ultrasound examinations today very sadly it was confirmed that MAXWELL’s problem was one of multiple congenital complications with both his eyes and that they were beyond repair. Dr.Goodhead believes that this is most likely a degenerating developmental defect from birth - as the ultra sound revealed that not only did he have cataracts, but he had a hyperechoic mass in the anterior part of the globe and then the posterior segment of the globe was filled with extremely dense point-like hyperechoic masses. These masses suggest cellular material filling the entire posterior segment and on movement of the globe this mass which could be blood and degenerate cells could be seen moving about. The retina also appeared to be detached as well. Hence no amount of surgery could ever restore sight to MAXWELL.
We had Shida in the next door stockade and were able to examine his eyes with the ultrasound as a comparison to those of MAXWELL, and the marked difference was clearly visible.
It was very disappointing for all of us who held hope. We now have to focus on plan B to ensure that MAXWELL has a protected and safe quality of life despite his handicap.
January 2008
MAXWELL has being causing us concern, suffering from diarrheoa which eventually necessitated a course of Sulphadimidine anti-biotic, followed by the usual Acidopholis to restore his stomach flora. However, the diarrheoa returned, accompanied by a very rapid loss of condition.
Reluctant to use another antibiotic which always depresses the immune system, we turned to Nature, giving him Green Clay, (purchased for human consumption in France), Colloidal Silver and Kaolin, at the same time reducing the strength of his Lactogen, and adding more Oatmeal porridge to his 4 hourly feeds. This treatment worked in that it cured the diarrheoa, but too effectively, resulting in serious constipation which necessitated loads of brown sugar, liquid paraffin andhomeopathic peristalsis aids.
MAXWELL is now again thriving, enjoying thoroughbred race-horse supplements, (since rhinos are of the horse family) with Lucerne added to his cut natural greens. Wondering whether perhaps he might be missing some of the specific parasites that all wild rhinos seem to harbour, and which may have a symbiotic purpose, we gathered the dung of wild rhinos, along with that of Shida, and put it in his stockade.
We also dug out his own dung midden, and replaced all the soil, something of which he certainly did not approve. The diggers had a hard time to accomplish their task, MAXWELL obviously upset that his specific identity was being stolen! The introduction of wild dung had another unexpected consequence, however, because Shida instantly thought that there were new occupants within MAXWELL’s Stockade, and this made him more of a clinging vine than ever!
He vented his fury on the flower pots, dented Angela’s Suzuki and generally caused chaos around the yard, so the protective “strings” which used to be electrically charged, but whose power had long since died, had to be reactivated as a deterrent since Shida had discovered that they no longer imparted a mild reminder of the no-go areas! And so, this month has seen us preoccupied with our orphaned rhinos as well as the latest elephant arrivals, SIRIA, KENIA and Kimana!
September 2008
SOLIO first arrived into our care as a feisty calf of just six months old, who gave the Keepers a real run around. For weeks the men persevered trying to calm her down, scratching her with a bottle brush attached to a long stick, and feeding her milk with a hose pipe, ensuring they had a healthy distance between them and her. Little by little she began to trust them, and so they edged ever closer.
Today, six months on, SOLIO is completely in love with her Keepers, following them trustingly every where, and although reluctant in the beginning she now adores her daily mudbath too. She is extremely playful, which is always a good indicator of any orphan’s emotional state. MAXWELL our blind rhino who lives in a stockade next door remains hooked on Solio too, so while she loves her Keepers who have successfully replaced the void left by the death of her mother, she remains with rhino interaction daily which will be important in the future. She is a beautiful rhino, with a lovely nature, and it is heartwarming to see her so happy and settled.
MAXWELL quite by mistake ended up having a great adventure in the early hours of Tuesday 16th April. It is a mystery how the bolt on his stockade chain came loose to the extent of falling away completely causing his stockade side door to open presumably as he leaned on it. Solio, the female rhino orphan who is now free to come and go as she pleases, had been back to the stockades between 6pm and 9pm the previous evening and perhaps MAXWELL while having contact with her had pressed again and again against the door causing it to slowly come loose.
Luckily she was long gone by the time MAXWELL made his escape or he could have followed her far out into the Nairobi National Park. There he would have been at the mercy of other aggressive male rhinos, who would have perceived him as a threat, being unfamiliar to them, or at risk from Nairobi Park predators or dangerous unknown terrain. The torrential rain had also resulted in some fast flowing streams which, from his tracks, it appears MAXWELL was reluctant to cross. Instead he made his way back towards the familiar smell of his midden, where the keepers deposit his dung from the stockade, and towards the various delights of Daphne Sheldrick's garden.
The first that was known of MAXWELLs shenanigans was when Taru, Angela Sheldrick's son, was rudely awakened at about 4am by some crashing about outside his bedroom window. In the pitch dark he mistakenly thought it must be Solio, who often chooses to spend nights out of the confines of her stockade. Taru told her to go away and thought little more of it until he was awakened again at 5am. This time he thought he had better get up and take a closer look.
MAXWELL had obviously been bumbling around for quite a while, rooting up paving slabs and upturning the garden chairs. Being blind he would not have been able to see what he was doing but with his excellent sense of smell he could have been searching out the familiar scents of Solio and the Sheldrick family. Taru, realising it was not in fact Solio but MAXWELL, quickly alerted the rest of the family.
At this stage, on rising to let the elephant orphans out, the keepers had also become aware that MAXWELL was not in his stockade. They followed his tracks which finally led them to the front of Angela's house. There they faced a very serious dilemma. Angela was very concerned as, if it proved impossible to get MAXWELL to return of his own accord, the vets would have to be called in, MAXWELL darted and then who knows what measures taken to try and lift the nearly fully grown 7 year old rhino back to his stockade. Happily Angela's concerns were unfounded.
MAXWELL seemed to be quite happy and relieved to hear familiar voices in what must have been, for him, an extremely confusing situation. Instead of reacting with fear and aggression, the common way for a rhino to react when alarmed, he allowed himself to be coerced back to his stockade with a bottle of milk, some bananas and the familiar smells of the dung from his midden. The only slight hitch came when the keepers had to persuade him to cross the small stream near the elephants mud bath, something he had managed to avoid previously by traipsing through Daphne's garden. Overcoming MAXWELLs fears with much encouragement he was soon back in his stockade looking, as much as a rhino can do, mightily relieved, as were the keepers and the rest of the Sheldrick family.
At around 6 o’clock this morning as the older orphans began to walk out into the forest, Ngasha, Rorogoi and Arruba decided to go and visit Maxwell at his stockade. All the elephants seemed very excited as they touched Maxwell and ran along his stockade perimeter. All this activity caused Max to become extremely excited about all the elephant attention. Ngasha began to trumpet which woke up the sleeping baby elephants, eventually the keepers managed to herd all the elephants into the bush and get them settled.
September 2014
There was a lot of commotion last night at around 2am when Maxwell brought down one of his stockade walls. The termites must have undermined the posts somewhere. During the night the keepers heard this tremendous thud, and when they went to find out what had happened they saw Maxwell confused by the fallen wall.
The keepers quickly acted and called Robert and Angela, we all tried every possible solution to try get Maxwell back into the smaller stockade, not even the sugar cane worked, but it was no use he just didn’t want to. After having a look around the stockade trying to figure out why Maxwell had done this, it was spotted a lump of hippo dung located just outside his stockade. Rhinos are extremely territorial and obviously this hippo had taken a step too far into Maxwell’s territory.
After a long struggle and with the help of Angela and Robert we finally got Maxwell back into his stockade where he stayed throughout the night until the wall could be fixed the following day.
September 2014
Maxwell is a very big boy, in beautiful condition, and still enjoys the company of the young orphans in the early mornings. He very much is a creature of routines and is predictably in various parts of his stockade at various times of day. The evening visitors are a huge attraction for him, he loves the attention and the scratching and of course the handouts of sugar cane that he gets at this time. Shabby his Sacred Ibis friend is constantly by his side. In the nights he is visited by wild rhinos and huffing and puffing can be heard in the darkness when visitors come to his gate under the cover of darkness. This interaction is important for Maxwell, because although he remains safe from these wild visitors the interaction is important for his wellbeing.
We at www.chaloafrica.com are thrilled to play a small part in Maxwell's journey.
16th January, 2015
You too can foster Maxwell and get monthly updates of his antics. Learn more about Sheldrick's Fostering Program here.
