Date

Observation

1653

On 15th October Van Riebeeck’s son is born, being ‘the second child born since the commencement of the colony’ [and indicating that European women travelled with the colonists], about which time ‘a number of rhinoceroses, eilands [elands], antelopes, one troop of seven, and another of eight elephants, were seen at the distance of a day’s journey from the fort’^[1].

1659

By this year, the Dept. of Anatomy at the University of Leiden has a stuffed elephant’s head and the skin of a rhino in its collection for scientific study^[2].

1685-86

Cape Governor Simon Van der Stel’s expedition, At Piquetberg:

Meanwhile a rhinoceros of unbelievable size appeared which headed straight for the middle of our procession with great fury and anger; he ran along it to the rear where the Hon. Command I was with his carriage, on whom it bore down. The Hon. Commander barely had time to leave the carriage, but jumped from it all the same with a blunderbuss in his hand and aimed at the beast which was scarcely 6 yards from him, intending to shoot; but the blunderbuss misfired, the rear catch striking on the front one. And the furious animal which we otherwise were sure would have devoured the Hon. Commander in our presence, by great fortune ran past him brushing against his body. We believe that it took fright as a result of a shot which one of the hunters fired at it. It ran forth at great speed, away from us. Several others, who were on horseback, were also unable to avoid it, and quit their horses in great consternation, injuring themselves in various places.^[3]

1704

Starrenburg, landdrost of Stellenbosch, is sent by W.A. van der Stel (son of Simon Van der Stel and second governor of the Dutch Cape Colony^[4]) on a cattle trading journey ‘to the upper reaches of the Oliphants River beyond Klaver’ [Klawer], accompanied by Corporal Willem Brentgens^[5] and the gardener Jan Hartogh and following the route beyond the Piquetbergen taken by Olof Bergh 23 years previously^[6]. He spends a night ‘at Groene Kraal (now Groene Valley, beyond Piquetberg) near a limpid brook where a rhinoceros visited them “and stood close to the tent examining the wagons attentively, but retired quietly when the fires were lit”^[7].

1760

The ‘farmer and elephant hunter’ Jakobus Coetzé (also Coetse, Coetsee)^[8] journeys on 14 July ‘with 2 wagons and accompanied by 12 Hottentots of the Gerigriquas Nation’^[9] from his home at Aurora [previously Klipfontein/ Coele Klipfontein^[10]] on the west side of the Piquetberg to the Gariep and beyond, with a permit from the Cape Governor, Ryk Tulbagh (‘Councillor Extraordinary of Dutch India and Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and Dependencies thereof’^[11]), to shoot elephant beyond the Orange^[12], claiming during his lifetime ‘to be the first European to have penetrated far beyond the Great (Orange) River’^[13]. Travelling north between the Great and Little Karras Mountains they camp on 22 October near a Nama settlement on the Lion River, where rhinos, giraffes, buffaloes, zebras, quaggas, kudus, elands, hartebeests and gnus ‘offered wonderful opportunities for hunting’^[14]. He also observes 'a multitude' of rhinoceroses, lions and giraffe in the land of the 'Great Amacquas', near Warmbad^[15].

1770

Louis XV (1710-1774) of the royal household of Versailles receives a rhinoceros from India which lives at the court for 23 years [see 1793]^[16].

1778

William Paterson’s party stays at a farm called ‘Rhinoceros Bosch’, ‘from its having been frequented by these animals some years ago; though very few are now found in this part of the country’^[17]. They continue their journey south and west of the Roggeveld^[18].

1792

Travelling through waterless stretches northwards in January the 1791 Willem van Reenen expedition eat rhinoceroses, giraffes and buffalo, reaching the hot springs of Rhenius mountain [in Rehoboth?] in ‘the land of the Heydamarassen [Bergdamas]’ on 23 January, where an important copper mine was located^[19]. This seems to be at a moment when Cape Nama [‘Goedonse’ or ‘sheep-stealers’ in Van Reenen] had ousted the Dama and murdered Jan Sieberd at the springs, stimulating threats of retaliation by the head of the Nama Red Nation / Kai||khaun who also laid claim to this area and were concerned to resist incursions by ‘Cape Nama’^[20]. Willem van Reenen commenced journey home in February, reaching Modderfontein/Keetmanshoop from Rhenius mountain / Rehoboth in March and staying with Visagie and his wife – ‘the first mention of a white woman having her home in South West Africa’^[21]. He trades six of his best guns with natives for cattle and arrives back at his homestead on the Olifants River on 20 June, [37] his party having killed 65 rhinos, six giraffes and other game in ‘no inconsiderable quantity which the big-game hunter did not regard as worthy of mention’^[22].

1793

Pieter Pienaar (‘a well-known big game hunter’^[23]) [is this the same Petrus Pienaar who employs Klaas Afrikaner (father of Jager Afrikaner and grandfather of Jonker Afrikaner - see below) and commando in early 1790s in Orange River District?] travels under the auspices of the Dutch East India Co. with brothers (and prominent Cape burghers) Willem van Reenen, Sebastiaan Valentijn van Reenen and Dirk Gijsberg van Reenen^[24], by the Meermin (under Captain Duminy who ‘presented the Hottentots with tobacco and trinkets’^[25]) from the Cape to Walvis Bay where they are met by their guide from Warmbad, Barend Freyn^[26]. Pienaar reports ‘a “splendid valley” at the mouth of the river [Swakop?] with fresh water, luxuriant vegetation of camelthorns and ana trees and a great number of game: such as elephants, rhinoceroses, gemsbuck and springbuck’^[27]. Walvis Bay at this time is annexed for the Dutch^[28], and Duminy is under orders to ‘annex part of the coastline’ for the Netherlands^[29], hoisting the Company’s flag at Possession Island and Angra Pequeña^[30]. Captain Duminy proclaims Dutch sovereignty over Angra Pequeña, Halifax Island and Walvis Bay (‘Bahia de Baleas’ translated by the Hollanders as Walvisch Bay)^[31], and produces maps of Walvis Bay and Angra Pequeña^[32]. They experience uneasy relations with inhabitants of Walvis Bay, armed with assegais, who are unable to bring cattle for exchange and would not act as guides^[33].

Sebastiaan Valentijn van Reenen set out ‘with the assistance of some natives’ to discover copper mines, and Pieter Pienaar with ‘[h]is Cape Hottentots’ went eastwards ‘following the valley of a river inland [the Swakop], at first in a South-Easterly and East-South-Easterly and then in N.N. Easterly direction’^[34] on a hunting trip into the interior [38] but could not find water, although he encountered two ‘Damaras’ who showed him water to the north-east in what was the Swakop River^[35]. Pienaar travelled inland along the Swakop for 12 days seeing no cattle but finding five Damara [Bergdamara? - Pienaar’s Nama ‘Cape Hottentots’ could understand them^[36]] settlements, without cattle, and obtaining by barter ‘several copper bangles’ said to be made from mines 12-14 ‘stages’[schoften’^[37]] (‘one stage equaled a four hour trek in an ox-wagon’) south of the Swakop (between modern day ‘Protection Bay’[?] and the Swakop River^[38]), but a five year drought and reports of no water en route prohibited travel at that time and he did not see the source of the mineral^[39]. Pienaar was told by ‘Hottentots’ that the mine ‘had been visited by Christians the previous year’^[40]. He encounters ‘over 300 rhinoceros and even a greater number of elephants, gemsbuck, springbuck, buffaloes, and lions’, and kills 20 rhinos, three elephants and ‘much other game which he never counted’, thereby providing food for the Damaras that had joined his party^[41]. Further landings north of Walvis Bay speak of the “splendid valley” of the Swakop, good water, and ‘five old huts … which they reckoned had been erected by English or Americans’ as they

fetched water here^[42]. Crew observe ‘great numbers of wild animals, such as elephants, rhinoceros, gems buck, and springbuck’ as well as camelthorn and ana trees^[43].

In 1793, during the French Revolution, a man kills with a sword the rhinoceros given to Louis XV of the royal household of Versailles [see 1770]: ‘[t]echnically, it was a difficult feat for taxidermists Jean-Claude Mertrud and Felix Vicq d’Azyr to skin and beautifully mount the animal’ which is now in The Natural History Museum in Paris^[44].

1828

The American sea captain Benjamin Morrell observes for the Berg River area north of Cape Town that the ‘two-horned rhinoceros’ is now rarely seen because of European settlement and impacts^[45].

1837

British army captain James Edward Alexander includes multiple references to rhino in his narrative, e.g.:

- ‘Two-horned rhinoceroses, both black and white, are now found in the upper parts of the Fish river’^[46]

- The ‘Kei Kaap’ or Great Flat north of Bethany ‘is a favourite resort for rhinoceroses and large game in general; and about it were old pitfalls for securing them’^[47].

Further north

Alexander 1937 (v. approx. location) On 22nd March, near Tarop Hills and Usis fountain, they see the fresh traces of a rhino and discover a party of Boschmans on the move (two men, six women, six children) described as:

… well grown, and all in good case, unlike in size or lankness the diminutive and starved creatures which are found on [p. 288] the upper parts of the Orange river. The men wore karosses, and the heads of the women were ornamented with circular cut pieces of ostrich shell strung on the hair, one or two also wore dangling ornaments of red seeds. Their skin half petticoats were scantier, and their fore fringes shorter than those of the Namaqua women; otherwise there was a general resemblance in dress and feature.^[48] 

Asking one of the men what he most wished for in the world he replied ‘the rhinoceros, and to get it easily’.^[49]

“Bull’s Mouth Pass”

. . . [O]n looking to the right we saw the cause of this [broad bare patches of ground], for a red cloud, as of sand rising and falling, again indicated a thick flight of destroying locusts. On the left of the plain was a broad and winding belt of high trees and bushes, indicating the course of a river, the Chuntop [Tsondab] (or that which in running is suddenly checked): this entered a craggy opening in a flat range of mountains stretching across the plain to the north. The notch in the range where the wooded Chuntop disappeared, was the anxiously looked for Kopumnaas, or Bull’s Mouth Pass—so named from its being full of dangers, like the Valley of the Shadow of Death. . . . We approached these dangerous animals with some caution. . . . [U]nless they are taken standing, with deliberate aim at the backbone, or behind the jaw, good balls are thrown away upon them. . . . So our two first rhinoceroses, being continually on the move, escaped from us though we tickled them roughly. I now mounted my grey to look out for a good outspan place, whilst the locust-cloud passed over me, and the insects fell about me like thick and dry leaves in October.^[50] 

   The black rhinoceros, whose domains we seemed now to have invaded, resembles in general appearance an immense hog; twelve feet and a half long, six feet and a half high, girth eight feet and a half, and of the weight of half a [2] dozen bullocks; its body is smooth, and there is no hair seen except at the tip of the ears, and the extremity of the tail. The horns of concreted hair, the foremost curved like a sabre, and the second resembling a flattened cone, stand on the nose and above the eye; in the young animals the foremost horn is the longest, whilst in the old ones they are of equal length, namely a foot and a half or more: though the older the rhinoceros the shorter are its horns, as they wear them by sharpening them against the trees, and by rooting up the ground with them when in a passion.

When the rhinoceros is quietly pursuing his way through his favourite glades of mimosa bushes, (which his hooked lip enables him readily to seize, and his powerful grinders to masticate), his horns fixed loosely on his skin, make a clapping noise by striking one against the other [?]; but on the approach of danger, if his quick ear or keen scent make him aware of the vicinity of a hunter, the head is quickly raised, and the horns stand stiff and ready for combat on his terrible front.

[3] The rhinoceros is accompanied by a sentinel to give him warning, a beautiful green-backed and blue-winged bird, about the size of a jay, which sits on one of his horns. When he is standing at ease among the thick bushes, or rubbing himself against a dwarf tree, stout and strong like himself, the bird attends him that it may feed on the insects which either fly about him, or which are found in the wrinkles of his head and neck. The creeping hunter, stealthily approaching on the leeward side, carefully notes the motions of the sentinel-bird; for he may hear though he cannot see the rhinoceros behind the leafy screen. If the monster moves his head slightly and without alarm, the bird flies from his horns to his shoulder, remains there a short time, and then returns to its former strange perch; but of the bird, from its elevated position and better eyes, notes the approach of danger, and flies up in the air suddenly, then let the hunter beware; for the rhinoceros instantly rushes desperately and fearlessly to wherever he hears the branches crack.

   Thick and clumsy though the legs of the [4] rhinoceros are, yet no man unless possessed of the powers of my chief huntsman, Henrick Buys, can hope to escape him by fleetness of foot on open ground; once he has a man fairly in his wicked eye, and there is no broken ground or bush for concealment, destruction is certain. The monster, snorting and uttering occasionally a short fiendish scream of rage, bears down in a cloud of dust, tearing up the ground with his curved plough-share, kicking out his hind legs in a paroxysm of passion, and thrusting his horns between the trembling legs of his flying victim, he hurls him into the air as if he were a rag, and the poor wretch falls many yards off. The brute now looks about for him, he runs at him, rips him open, and tramples him to a mummy!

   In general, the moment a hunter fires at a rhinoceros, or hurls a lance at him from behind a rock or tree, he runs off as fast as he can, and if his gun is heavy, he drops it the better to escape to a place of safety, and from whence he can watch the movements of the rhinoceros.

   ‘By Behemoth, “the chief of the ways of God,” [5] is meant the rhinoceros. … But the rhinoceros “which eateth grass as an ox” is the white rhinoceros, (which we had yet to see), larger but not so dangerous as the black species with which we now had to do.

   When the elephant and rhinoceros come together and are mutually enraged, the rhinoceros avoiding the blow of the trunk and the thrust of tusks, dashes at the elephant’s belly and rips it up. The lion of course never thinks of attacking the rhinoceros; and the Boschmans say that although found in the same haunts they give way to one another. I thought then that the rhinoceros had no superior; none that he may fear save all-destroying man; when the Buys [so more than one Buys in the journey, i.e. other than Henrick Buys mentioned above?] said – “Once at the Great Fountain, where we had gone to hunt, we found a rhinoceros which had just been killed by a hyena. [6] The hyena is in general a cowardly animal, and is scared even by a cow when it threatens with its horns in defence of its calf; but when the hyena is very hungry it seems desperate, and will attack any thing. The one which had killed the rhinoceros had followed it for some time, (as we saw by the footmarks), and had bitten it with its terrible jaws, till the rhinoceros fell and painfully died.”

   Having thus sufficiently introduced the black rhinoceros to my sporting reader, let us repose for a little under the refreshing shade of the trees of the Chuntop, before we endeavour to fight our way through the Bull's Mouth Pass. …

   Many of the people were employed during the remainder of the 30th of March in vleking or cutting the meat of the game we had killed into thin flaps or steaks, and hanging it on the bushes to dry; and as “the ox is not muzzled whilst treading out the corn,” so these fleshers' jaws were as fully employed as their hands. The most useless as hunters had the best appetites; [7] and and old Aaron, the (so called) chief guide and butcher, ate till he could hardly waddle from bush to bush to cover them with red meat. ...

   In the evening I went with “oud Jan,” Magasee, and three Namaquas into the pass to reconnoitre, and to look out for the best means of dragging the waggon through it. The valley at first was very narrow and rugged, with loose stones and bushes. Pathways cleared through the stones by the feet of wild beasts, led along the course of the river; and here and there, close to these paths [cleared by ‘wild beasts’ to the river], were circular enclosures of loose stones, about three feet high only, behind which the Boschmans had been in the habit of concealing themselves to hurl their lances into the bodies of the rhinoceros and other animals [8] as they passed. We started steenboks, and saw zebras grazing on a slope before us on our right, and passed over the fresh prints of lions. The valley then opened, and became romantic and beautiful.  It was of an oval shape, and three or four miles in extent before it again contracted, and it was full of various species of acacia, standing singly and in groups, whilst the mountains of indurated sandstone which hung over it presented bare cliffs among scattered foliage.

   We passed every instant the favourite resting places of the rhinoceros, whose disposition is so spiteful that it kicks to pieces even what it deposits; and it seems always to return to the same place for the purpose.

We crossed the Chuntop, and looking to the left, I saw, eating its evening meal off a thorn bush, a rhinoceros within one hundred yards of us. I whispered to Jan Buys, and we made ready; but the watchful monster did not charge as we expected, being young, and made off before we had time to becreep it. After an hour’s progress through this first Valley of the Pass, (the entire length of the Pass is about forty miles,) we [9]returned towards the outspan place. …

   In my absence in the Pass, many of the hunters had resumed the sport on the plain, and two more rhinoceroses were mortally wounded. The people ate apparently ten pounds of flesh each in as many hours; talked of their day’s adventures, and how this one had ran off behind rocks or bushes, or how another had got into a tree, for fear of the rhinoceros; and with smoking, and pounding the bones on flat stones to lick the marrow, by drawing the stone across their lips: they were awake all night, made a noise like that in a shoemaker’s shop with hammering the bones, and effectually kept off the lions or other nocturnal prowlers. …

Rhinoceros hunt in Bull’s Mouth Pass, included in Alexander’s narrative (2006[1838], vol. 1 facing p. 175). Engraving by William Heath (1795-1840) (Rookmaaker 2007, p. 106). Source:

http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/africa/alexander/alexander3.jpg 25 August 2020.

Bull’s Mouth Pass as it appears today, showing the accuracy of Alexander’s sketch (source: photo by Rob Brett, February 2017, used with permission). 

[10] I was very anxious to get through the Pass, to imprint its wild vallies for the first time with a waggon spoor, and to reach the sea as soon as I could, where, at Walvisch Bay, I expected to communicate with a ship of war, which had been kindly promised by Admiral Sir Patrick Campbell, for the assistance of the expedition.

   In the morning of the 31st (having no time to lose in mere sport, though the temptation was strong), I mustered forty of the people, and proceeded with them to the left of Mt. Michell, to clear a road for the waggon. We cut down trees, lopped off' branches, and removed stones for several hours, till the sun drove us in a fever of heat back to our “lay place.” In the afternoon we inspanned, crossed the Chuntop, dragged the waggon down the first valley, again crossed the river, ascended a rugged slope, crossed a neck, and descending again on the other side, found ourselves in another beautiful valley, but of many miles in extent, running east and west, two or three miles broad, and enclosed with lofty [11] mountains.

   At sun down, whilst outspanning beside a pool of the Chuntop, there was an alarm of a rhinoceros near the waggon; a few hunters ran to where he was; … the rhinoceros was becrept, the hunters sat down behind the bushes, long guns were rested on them and presented at the monster, which, unconscious of danger, was quietly eating from a bush, and three balls through the backbone and jaw, stretched the rhinoceros kicking in the dust …

   In the night the dogs saved us from being run over by a rhinoceros, which was passing right through our lairs on its way to the water, but which, crashing through the bushes, was turned off by our watchful guardians. Next morning we proceeded with sharpened knives to cut up our mighty prize. The gastronomic powers of my people were so extraordinary that it seemed a rhinoceros only could satisfy them.

   The huge grey and mud-covered mass of flesh [12] we now dissected, and whose hide we carefully removed and preserved, was a female, with two perfect horns of equal length, and she measured twelve and a half feet including the tail; inside we found a foetus the size of a pig a month old. Aaron [‘old Aaron, the chief guide and butcher’ – identified as Namaqua] and his assistant butchers made slashing work, and we were soon in the midst of a great shamble; flesh, flesh was on every side, and the apparently insatiable stomachs of the Namaquas were at last content.^[51]

Alexander asks ‘oud Jan’, the best storyteller, for ‘a rhinoceros story’, eliciting the following tale (after having his pipe lit by ‘Saul, the Little Damara’):

“Once on a time my father took his sons out to hunt; he only had a gun, and we had assegaes and knives. At first we were very unsuccessful; we found nothing until the second day; we were very hungry, when we came on a rhinoceros. The old man soon wounded it in the leg, and he then told us to throw stones at it, to make the [14] wound worse. You know how Namaquas can throw stones; so we crept upon the rhinoceros, followed it, and threw stones with such effect, that at last it lay down from pain. I being armed with a knife, then approached it from behind, and commenced to hamstring it, while my elder brother, who is now dead, Cobus, remarkable for two strange rings round his eyes, tried to climb over the back of the rhinoceros to thrust his lance into its shoulder…; he had just begun to climb, when the rhinoceros rose suddenly with a terrible blast or snort, and we all ran off as fast as we could to a tree, and there held a consultation about our further proceedings.

We had not been long at the tree, when the rhinoceros observing where we were, rushed towards us with his horns at first in the air, and then as he came near, he tore up the ground with them. We scattered ourselves before him, when Cobus getting in a passion, stopped short in his flight, called the rhinoceros an ugly name, and turned and faced it. The rhinoceros, astonished [15] at this unexpected manoeuvre, also stopped and stared at Cobus, who then commenced calling out loudly and abusing the monster; it now seemed to be seized with fear, for it sidled off, when Cobus, who had a heart like a lion’s and was as active as an ape, immediately pursued the rhinoceros, seized its tail, sprung with its assistance on its back, rode it well, and plunging his assegai deep into its shoulder, it fell, and was despatched by the rest of us...^[52] 

They continue their journey northwards to the ‘Kuisip’, the wagon very ‘loaded with a rhinoceros’ hide’^[53].

- They find the remains of a dead rhino in the Kuiseb which ‘seemed to have been surprised [56] by the sudden rising of the river and drowned’^[54].

- Later, after time spent at Walvis Bay, probably Sandfontein, he meets ‘Quasip’, the chief of ‘the bay people’, at Rooibank, returning to the bay from inland and who reports that ‘some distance up the Kuisip, we should fall in with plenty of rhinoceroses, and also obtain other game to support us^[55].

- A ‘Boschman’ guide describes a rhino hunt in the Kuiseb area thus,

   After allowing Oahap, the elder of the two, to occupy himself for some time about the stomach of the heifer, I called to him to come and speak with me by the fire. He rose reluctantly, with a handful of bowels, and came and sat opposite me in no pleasant humour; but a pipefull of tobacco soon smoothed his brow.

“Have you,” I said, "always lived about the Kuisip?"

“Yes.”

[117] “And your father before you?” ”Yes.”

“What was he?”

“He was a great chief: the people under him stood like the reeds over the river, they were so many.”

“What became of them?”

“Some were destroyed by wild beasts - as the lion, the elephant, and the rhinoceros; others were killed by the Damaras [Hereros]; and the rest died from hunger and old age. Of my people there are but few left now.”

“Think now, and tell me,” I continued, “what is the most wonderful thing you ever saw in your life?”

Oahap was sorely puzzled at this question. His range of observation had not extended far. He had apparently lived about sixty years in the world; he was tall and stout, still vigorous and active; and his “beat” had perhaps never extended beyond the branches of the River of Roots.

“The strangest thing I ever saw,” said he, after a long inspiration, and swallowing the [118] smoke, “was this. One day, two of us found the fresh marks of a couple of rhinoceroses in a path. We made a little stone kraal by the side of the path, where my companion lay in wait with two assegaes in his hand, and I went off to look for the rhinoceroses, and to disturb them. I found them asleep some distance off, under the trees: one of them was an old cow, and the other a large calf-rhinoceros. I threw a stone, they stood up; I threw another, they looked round; and seeing me, the old one rushed at me in a great rage. I ran off to a tree; and had just got my feet off the ground in climbing it, when the rhinoceros drove her horns between my legs into the trunk of the tree; but I was not hurt. She then went off with her calf; they passed the kraal; and my companion, standing up, threw an assegae at the old one: she went a little way and fell. He stood up again, and threw the other assegae, when the calf also fell dead. I came on after the rhinoceroses, and seeing them both lying near the kraal, I jumped on the back of the big one and rode it for joy, and I cried out to my friend, ‘Now I see you [119] are your father’s son this day!’ This, then, is the most wonderful thing I ever saw.^[56]

- On the 15th May they pack up (at Kuiseb junction – west of Gamsberg) and ascend ‘by a zebra path, the hills on the south side of the river’ travelling in an easterly direction ‘over much broken ground’, packing off ‘in a hollow at Keree Kama [= |girib ||gams], or jackal’s water’, [120] where ‘an alarm arose that a rhinoceros was steering down the confined bed of the Karee Kama, for the small water place beside which we were sitting in the sand. … before we could get a shot at the rhinoceros, he “turned tail” and disappeared’^[57].

We proceeded up the Kuisip, and among the grass we had excellent sport with numerous flocks of guinea fowl, which we had not seen since we left Habunap [south-west of Bethany]; and after thirteen miles, we packed off at two deep holes in a rock, full of excellent water, at a place called  Abashouap, or “red man’s child,” [|awa = red, ‘Red Man’ = a Nama man?] when ‘Numeep, the Boschman guide, came to me labouring under an attack of dysentery, and said that he was about to die! … [124] [saying it is caused by] having dug for water at the place called Kuisip in the bed of the Kuisip River, near our last watering place, without having first made an offering, …[explaining that] “Before any Boschman … digs for water at Kuisip, he must lay down a piece of flesh, seeds of the ‘naras fruit, or an arrow, or any thing else he may have about him and can spare, as an offering to Toosip [? From ‘tu’ = rain?], the old man of the water.”

   Now on this occasion ‘Numeep had left nothing at the water, and was therefore afflicted for his neglect.

   I asked ‘Numeep if he had ever seen Toosip. “No; I have never seen him, nor has any body else that I know of; but we believe that he [125] is a great red man with-white hair, and who can do us good and harm. He has neither bow nor assegae, nor has he a wife.”

   “Do you say any thing to him when you put down your offering at the water-place ?”  

   "We say, ‘Oh! great father! son of a Boschman - give me food; give me the flesh of the rhinoceros, of the gemsbok, of the wild horse, or what I require to have.’ But I was in such a hurry to drink this morning, that I scratched away the sand above the water, and took no notice of Toosip; and he was so angry, that if you had not helped me I must have died.”

   Having indulged too freely in zebra flesh at the last water, was doubtless the cause of ‘Numeep’s illness; but fear may have made him worse: I was very glad he had been ill; for owing to this, I found out a trace of worship among a very wild people.^[58]

To be contd.

1842

11th June - ‘A large black rhinoceros caused great alarm; and excited prayer in one case’^[59].

1843

Rhenish (RMS) missionary Carl Hugo Hahn reports black rhino on the ‘Schawagaup River’ (Swakop), in between Windhoek / |Ae||gams and Okahandja (7 Feb), ("white" rhino at Hatsamas, 7 March), ‘Harris’ (Aris) (11 May)^[60].  

By this year ‘an adult (mounted) specimen of the black rhinoceros from South Africa’, presented by an Earl of Derby, is housed in the British Museum^[61].

1844

Carl Hugo Hahn, reports ‘rhino’ at Tsaobis (21 Feb) and ‘Deineus’ / Salem (223 Feb)^[62].|

Missionary Jan Bam reports a ‘rhino’ '[b]etween Gross Barmen and Walvisbay' (cf. vicinity of Tsaobis)^[63].

RMS missionary Hans Knudsen (Norwegian) reports a "white" rhino at ‘Kham’ (Kam River) on 3 July^[64].

Wesleyan missionary Joseph Tindall becomes stationed in Gobabis after a first visit in this year, reporting that rhino are common, [116] ‘that over 40 had been shot in a few months’, and recognises that there are two different species with different temperaments^[65].

1845

RMS missionary Knudsen reports a “rhino” at ‘Beth Salem, Kham’ (Kam River) on 25 July and RMS missionary Heinrich Scheppmann reports a black rhino on ‘Kuiseb River’ on 30 November^[66]. After wounding himself in a rifle accident near Otjikango and being looked after by Kleinschmidt in Rehoboth, missionary Heinrich Scheppmann leaves for Walvis Bay on 16 November 1845, his travelling party consisting of seven persons:

two drivers, an ox leader, a guide who had to give the direction, and three drivers for the single oxen and the slaughter cattle. On the way they also killed a rhinoceros 14 feet long, whose heart weighed about 15 pounds. The skin of the rhinoceros is said to have served as the Scheppmann's front door.^[67] 

Wesleyan missionary Joseph Tindall reports “rhino” at Gobabis, 18 October^[68].

1840s

Edward Cook(?) = abundance of rhino and buffalo in Walvis Bay, Kuiseb and Swakop areas^[69].

1846

Wesleyan missionary Joseph Tindall reports “rhino” at Gobabis, 18 March^[70].

1847

Carl Hugo Hahn reports black rhino on Swakop River, north-west of Windhoek^[71].  

Late 1840s

Hans Larsen (Danish) residing at Richterfeldt (i.e. Otjimbingwe, although [?]Hearn writes ‘amongst the Erongo mountain range’) reportedly shoots nine rhino in one day and describes the area as teeming with rhino when he arrived in Namibia in the late 1840s^[72].

Late 1840s-1850s

Hunting of rhino and elephant causes noticeable declines.^[73]

1849

Kolbe describes cooperative hunting practices by Bergdama, stating that he ‘finds Bergdama “Schiesshäuser” next to a river course. They are built from branches of young trees, firmly interwoven with each other with shooting holes (Schiesslöcher) through which Bergdama sent their poisoned arrows. These constructions are spaciously built. [32] “As soon as they notice that the rain water on the plains has dried out and the game reverts to the rivers they come here”^[74].’

Plus ‘Bergdama construct “triangular-shaped enclosures, and a deep hole with sharp poles just beyond the apex of the fence, so that the game, once it is chased into this wide enclosure only realises at the extreme apex that it is caught, and is either hunted or shot just there, or it jumps over the hedge where it finds its death in the deep hole”^[75]. ‘For the Rhino hunt, a different set of two big holes is built’.^[76]

1850

When travelling from ‘Davieep’ (near Tinkas) in the Namib towards Tsaobis, Galton and Andersson see rhino spoor, (and ‘in the middle of the day’ also meet here ‘some Ghou Damup [‘Berg Damara’], and persuaded four of them to join us’^[77].

[Charles John] Andersson, Stewartson [from Scheppmansdorf], and Larsen [from Richterfeldt/Otjimbingwe] travelled to Scheppmansdorf to break in oxen whilst Galton returned to Richterfeldt awaiting outcome of his letter to Jonker Afrikaner in prep. for expedition to Ngami. ‘On the way they killed a black rhinoceros and cut of much of the beast’s hide to make shamboks, wicked whips capable of inflicting severe wounds’.^[78]  

Returning from Scheppmansdorf to Richterfeldt, over the Naarip plain, ‘they startled an enormous black rhinoceros with her calf’ which they proceeded to shoot at and wound without finding again.^[79]

Andersson: 20 September, “rhino”, ‘Usab Gorge, Swakop River’; September x2 records, “rhino”, ‘Annis Fountain’; and 15 November, “rhino” Scheppmansdorf^[80].

Galton preferred rhino meat ‘to the flesh of any other animal, especially if it was young, rolled in a piece of spare hide and baked in the earth’, and reports that amongst his local guides it ‘was not only the meat that was consumed, even the hide, after being beaten with stones and cooked in the fire, was - they said - not at all bad to chew’^[81].

Missionary Johann Rath reports a “rhino” in ‘Mount Erongo’, recorded as ‘black rhino’ by Joubert in 1984^[82], and also ca. 1850 reports a ‘black rhino’ in the Kuiseb River: ‘[a] missionary at Rooibank used the skin of a rhino as a door’^[83].

1851

Andersson: April 1851, “rhino” at ‘Omanbondé Lake’^[84];

On 26 May Galton and Andersson reach Lake Otjikoto finding ‘wildlife in large numbers, although rhinoceros was rarely encountered’^[85]. ‘[I]n the company of Owambo traders who had bought copper ore from Hei||om people near Lake Otjikoto’, on 29 May Galton and Andersson reach the cattle-post of ‘Omutjamatunda’ (also Great Onamotoni, Amutoni and now Namutoni) oberving with 3-4,000 herd of cattle as well as springbok and zebra, and becoming ‘the first Europeans to record the existence of Etosha Pan’^[86].

 5 July, “rhino” at ‘Okamabuti’^[87];

September, "rhino" at ‘Elephant Fontein’ / Gobabis^[88]: Galton describes a big ‘game’ hunt, of which he conducts quite a few during his travels. In the vicinity of Elephant Fountain (Gobabis) in the east, and following in the footsteps of a Nama hunting expedition, he and his men the hunters slaughtered rhinoceros, both white and black, with abandon, avoiding the elephants for fear of being trampled on and returning only after Galton had tired of ‘massacreing the animals’:

On August 30 they set out for Elephant Fountain [Gobabis], named for the vast numbers of elephant tusks and bones discovered there, shooting hartebeest, impala, and zebra along the way. After a fortnight of difficult travel, they arrived at Elephant Fountain, a copious spring on a thorn-tree-covered hillside where animal herds came to drink, but from which the elephants were long gone. Amiral and about 40 of his Nama tribesmen were encamped there, returning from a shooting expedition further east where they had bagged 40 rhinoceros, but they decided to retrace their steps with Galton to engage in further sport. On September 19 they left Elephant Fountain with the land soon becoming sandy, bushy, and devoid of prominent landmarks. At ‘Twass they came upon a large encampment and Galton hired an Afrikaaner named Saul, an expert shot who spoke perfect Namaquan, to accompany him. On September 24 they left ‘Twass for their "shooting excursion" and two days later camped where Amiral’s men had slaughtered the black rhinoceros, seeing skulls all around.^[89] 

October, black and white rhino at Tunobis^[90]: On 1st October they start out for ‘Tounobis [Tunobis], which proved to be overrun with game: Galton: “[t]he river-bed was trodden like the ground in a cattle fair by animals of all descriptions.” ^[91] There were large herds of gnu and troops of zebra, and the hunters slaughtered rhinoceros, both white and black, with abandon, avoiding the elephants for fear of being trampled on^[92]:

Andersson: [in the course of just a few days their party shot] “upwards of thirty rhinoceroses. One night indeed, when quite alone, I killed in the space of five hours (independently of other game) no less than eight of those beasts, amongst which were three distinct species. And it is my belief that if I had persevered I might have destroyed double that number. But I never took delight in useless slaughter”.^[93] 

‘On reaching ‘Tounobis they erected hides and shot a number of rhino as they came to water. Galton did not record how many but added:

The Hottentots shot away a great many bullets at rhinoceroses and did, I dare say, a great deal of mischief. They bagged but very few, compared to the number they fired at; the others most likely lingered on for a few clays, and then lay down and died elsewhere.’^[94] 

After a week of shooting Amiral’s men were agitating to return to their wives and Galton had tired of “massacreing the animals.”^[95] 

1852

Andersson: April, “rhino” at ‘Aamhoup, Hountop R.’^[96]; 23 May, “white rhino”, ‘Twass’^[97].

1853

Andersson: May, black rhino at ‘Elephant Kloof’^[98]; June, “rhino” at Tunobis - here he finds that ‘game’ is much less plentiful than at his previous visit in 1851 and only sees the tracks of rhino^[99]; 16 June, “rhino” at ‘Otjiombonde River’ – same coordinates as ‘Tunobis’^[100]; 18 June 1853, “rhino” at ‘Ghanze’^[101]; June, white and black rhino at ‘Kobis’^[102] - Andersson is apparently attacked by a black rhino at Kobis in 1853:

I took up a stone and hurled it at her with all my force; when, snorting horribly, erecting her tail, keeping her head close to the ground, and raising clouds of dust by her feet, she rushed at me with fearful fury. I had only just time to level my rifle and fire before she was upon me; and the next instant, whilst instinctively turning round for the purpose of retreating, she laid me prostrate" ... [There was another charge, the rhinoceros turned around, and] "she struck me down a second time, and with her horn ripped up my right thigh (though not very deeply) from near the knee to the hip: with her fore feet, moreover, she hit me a terrific blow on the left shoulder near the back of the neck. My ribs bent under the enormous weight and pressure, and for a moment, I must, as [128] I believe have lost consciousness - I have at least very indistinct notions of what afterwards took place

 - the rhino then went away^[103]; 3 July white and black rhino at ‘Kobis’^[104] – apparently a ‘relic’ survives from this moment: ‘a horn cup mounted with a silver rim on the base, with an inscription referring to his stay at Kobis: “Made from the horn of a rhinoceros killed by C.J. Andersson on July 15th, 1853 (preserved in MuseumAfrica, Johannesburg, see Anonymous, 1946)’^[105]; July 1853, “rhino” at Lake Ngami^[106] - Andersson claims to shoot ‘about sixty rhinoceroses’ here^[107]; July 1853 “rhino” at ‘Lake Segoe’^[108]; September 1853, white rhino at Lake Ngami^[109].

Hearn reports that Andersson shoots up to 60 rhino in what was then known as ‘Damaraland’, i.e. central and west Namibia^[110].

1855

‘Bergdama’ - They kill wild animals by infecting pools of water with poisonous euphorbia juice, and that of another milky bush. They kill the white rhino with the same drug, although the black one eats the same bush with impunity.^[111]

1859

Andersson ‘discovers’ the Okavango River where he is ‘badly wounded in the thigh by a rhinoceros’[?, see 1853]^[112]. He records black rhino on 17 September at ‘Omanbondé Lake’^[113].

1894

Travelling in 1894, at Humbe [Mutano] [‘where a settlement (and Fort) was established by immigrants from Madeira, Brazil and Germany in 1845’ and attacked numerous times ‘by the native people who naturally resented the incursions into their territory’ on Kunene [Nauros] river, 70kms north of current Namibia-Angola border^[114], Rosenblad writes,  

Early one morning a few days later, we are awakened by a terrible noise from the dogs. We grab our guns and rush outside. As it is not yet light, we can only vaguely distinguish a creature that at a distance looks like a giant pig, and it is coming straight at us at a furious speed. The animal rushes between two of the servants’ smouldering fires. The drowsy men are running in all directions. Only an old, ugly Hottentot woman does not get away fast enough. She lets out a penetrating scream and falls.

The animal, crazed with fury or pain, now continues towards where we are and is met with bullets from five guns. It staggers but continues for another 100 metres before falling and staying down. Only now do we realize that we have bagged a beautiful black rhinoceros. It had dared to come right into a garden owned by a Portuguese called Videgal. This man had woken up but in the darkness had only lightly wounded the beast. The Hottentot woman had been completely ripped open and died before we could help her.^[115] 

A rhinoceros can move at great speed but, as it is heavy and clumsy, you need only throw yourself aside when it attacks. The fact is that it cannot stop suddenly but runs on. Its sight is known to be bad but its senses of smell and hearing are very good. The horn is a terrible weapon with which it can rip open the stomach of a horse in a trice.^[116]

1895-1896

When writing of his journey northwards along the Marienfluss from !Nadas, geographer Georg Hartmann, working for the Kaoko Land and Mining Company, writes of seeing isolated rhinoceros amidst very abundant fauna:

[s]o the northernmost part of the coast is closed to us. The enormous abundance of game in the whole northern area was remarkable, it is a true El Dorado for the hunter for all antelope species up to the rare rooibuck [?] and waterbuck [?], one sees ostrich herds up to 100 animals; from big game the elephant appears in herds, in smaller troops the giraffe, and isolated rhinoceros. The traces of lions are nuerous, they only clear the field where the elephant appears, and they move with the big antelope-herds which move around to the good grass-grazing pastures in the country.^[117] 

It's not certain from the next exactly how far north and west Hartmann saw rhino, but the placement of this description in the text is just after his expedition has journeyed on horseback north of !Nadas towards the Kunene via the Marienfluss.

1895-1896

Möller 1895-96 – southern Angola, banks of Kalonga River:

When one mentions rhino, Rhinoceros bicornis is usually meant, while the second species, Rhinoceros simus is considered to be practically exterminated[f107]. But on a couple of occassions [sic] I saw tracks of a rhino that indicated by the way the animal had walked, grazed and other behaviour that it differed from the common species, so I have reason to think that these tracks came from Rhinoceros simus. It is also thought that if this species does still exist it would be just here in these areas hitherto undisturbed by hunters.^[118] 

Rhinoceros bicornis was an early name for Diceros bicornis bicornis (Linnaeus), the black rhinoceros, which is "darkish yellowish-brown to dark brown" in colour. "It is distinguishable from the 'white rhinoceros' not so much by its colour as its smaller size, shorter head, and the rather pointed and slightly protruding upper lip, which is more in advance of the anterior horn than in the 'white rhinoceros', the horn rounded in the front at the base and shorter than in the larger species". It ranges into northern South West Africa. Rhinocerus simus was an early name for Ceratotherium simum simum (Burchell), the white rhinoceros. Distribution includes South West Africa where it has been exterminated. "It does not extend beyond the Zambezi River" (Roberts 1951). Roberts does not mention Angola in the distribution of either of these. Ellerman et al (1953) include Angola in the distribution of D. bicornis bicornis and give the name of the white rhinoceros as Diceros simus simus Burchell, 1817.^[119] 

1917

At Otjikakaneno, Resident Commissioner Manning reports that rhino are plentiful at OMHIBA mountains ahead^[120].

190817 at ‘Koandimwa’ (a small river and waterhole with permanent water) ‘Various Ovatshimba Hereros joined Oorlog’s party which on foot or riding oxen’ (Camped for night – Oorlog followers on oxen and on foot assembled with us) and in vicinity observes ‘[r]emains of summer cattle posts of nomadic Ovatshimba. No inhabitants now’. Also – ‘constant indications rhinoceros, viz. spoor and parallel lines dug in ground with horns or feet’. Every few hundred yards new signs of rhino.^[121] 

At Otuvare (where good running water, enormous palms and fig trees etc. ) he meets ‘friendly Ovatshimba headman KANDANGANDANGA moving with stock’ [On way saw several deserted OVATSHIMBA settlements – natives migrated when game including elephants and rhino driven out by grass fires. Saw one roan antelope.^[122] 

30 August 1917 - At Ombuko section of Omuhonga Riv (i.e. just before the river reaches the Kunene) he observes ‘[r]emains of Oolog’s old settlement on way down from Angola’ and ‘burnt off bush veldt’ near Kunene. Old elephant and rhino tracks followed.^[123]

Hamuhenge Crossing on Kunene, 2 September 1917 People here ‘... sleep on tree platforms fearing that rhinos may charge through camp on seeing fires at night. Much game as elephants evidently driven into Angola from Kaokoveld by terrible fires. Many signs of herds having been here formerly. Oorlog undertaken to particularly [19] preserve elephants as far as possible also suppress veld burning’.^[124] 

For more detail on the Major C.N. Manning’s journeys to ‘Kaokoveld’ see notes on Journeys to north-west Namibia by Major Charles N. Manning, 1917 and 1919 and mapped journey here.

1921

Major C.H.L. ‘Cocky’ Hahn becomes Native Commissioner for Owamboland and Kaokoland^[125]. Manning writes a letter to the Royal Geographical Society in 1921 describing his travels and affirming in particular the assistance of local people. He writes that he was:

particularly assisted by the comparatively few wild native inhabitants (viz Herero Bantu type and Hottentot-Bushman Nama type) of the remoter parts who not only guided me and explained matters along many hitherto unknown mountain routes, - frequently without even footpaths or the often useful elephant and other smooth game tracks through stones and bush, - but pointed out water in secluded kloofs and in beds of rivers which once flowed; abandoned settlements of previous generations, sacred piles of stones called OMBINDI to which travellers added something conveniently picked up muttering a few words to propitiate the spirits; method of making fire with sticks and perpetuation of family fires wich [sic] were also regarded with reverence and as altars in case of sickness etc; they also pointed out occasional rhinoceroses, elephants, giraffes and so forth which were very abundant before that greatest of all exterminators of the finest varieties of game viz the European’s firearm.^[126]

1934

Shortridge reports rhino northwards from Kaoko Otavi and recorded tracks near Kamanjab, observing that ‘during the rainy season, while surface water was available, a few wandered as far south as the northern and north-western parts of the Outjo district’^[127].

Late 1940s

Rhino ‘rarely seen’ at Twyfelfontein / |Ui-aes^[128], although the petroglyphs here contain numerous images of rhino.

1950s

Occasionally a solitary rhino will go by, bound for open water up or down the river. Rhinos love trekking in this manner. I do not know of anyone who has actually seen rhino go by since the pumps have been put in, but spoor has been seen. With no reeds to rustle, a rhino would go quietly by^[129].

1965

Joubert writes that,

[t]owards the end of the year a researcher is commissioned to study the status of black rhino: to determine how many black rhinos still live in Suidwes, what their population composition and distribution is, their living needs with regard to food and walking area, as well as their behavior. In short, anything that could possibly help to save them from extinction. … The study makes public disturbing information. The situation with regard to rhino is much more critical than was generally expected. The distribution of the black rhino, which used to occur throughout most of Suidwes, was now limited to the northwest corner. The total population of black rhino in 1966 were ninety animals. What was also disturbing, however, was the spread of these animals. Only 17 percent were within the amended limits of the Etosha National Park as suggested by the Odendaal Commission. The other 83 percent were on private land or in communal or intended communal territories. It was clear that drastic steps were needed to ensure its survival.^[130]

1966

A ‘game capture unit’ is established in SWA^[131]. A direct census to determine the distribution of the black rhinoceros is carried out by Eugene Joubert, ‘Nature Conservation and Tourism Branch, South West Africa Administration’, in Oct-Dec of this year, i.e. ‘the driest and hottest time of the year’ when ‘the rhino tend to drink every night’: [e]very known waterhole in the Kaokoveld and western Etosha National Park was visited in turn’, drawing on ‘ very good military map, showing all the waterholes’^[132].

Source: scan from Joubert 1971, p. 39.

1967

The first black rhino in ‘Damaraland’s’ pro-Namib area is caught by SWA’s newly established Game Capture Unit (est. 1966) and transferred by truck (after much effort) to a holding boma at Ombika near Okaukuejo: but bursts through the game-proof border fence of Etosha and becomes injured, having to be darted again (this time from the air by Nature Consevation Director de la Bat) and restored to the boma, unfortunately dying several days later of bleeding on the brain^[133].

1967-1969

Due to difficulties in estimating accurate doses of anaesthetic and antidote, in attempting to transfer five rhinos to Etosha National Park (presumably from the west), three animals die in the process^[134].

1970

The Game Capture Unit is expanded and a new anaesthetic becomes available making rhino translocation less risky [se 1967-1969]: twenty black rhinos in the Ugab Valley are anesthetised and translocated with only one loss^[135].  

1970-1973

Black rhino are trans-located to Etosha National Park and simultaneously vaccinated against anthrax, ‘an event that often repeats itself during the first three years of 1970’^[136].

1971

The first Director of Nature Conservation and Tourism Bernabe de la Bat tells game wardens of South African Air Force officers shooting wildlife from airplanes^[137]. A further 21 rhinos are successfully translocated to Etosha, and released mainly at Otjovasandu and Halali, with a further 10 in subsequent years^[138].

Joubert publishes a map of the distribution of black rhino in SWA, ca. 1850^[139].

Source: scan from Joubert 1984, p. 14, also 1971, p. 37.

1972

Re: the north-west - ‘The black rhinoceros appears to be decreasing on the plateau, but it is still relatively common in the escarpment mountains and on the semi-desert plains’^[140].

1984

Joubert writes in this year that ‘there are approx. 300 black rhinos (conservative estimated) in the Etosha National Park’ but ‘[a]ccording to reliable information, only 46 black rhinos in South West Africa beyond the borders of Etosha’: thus whilst the total number has tripled since 1966, 85% of the population is within the boundaries of Etosha^[141]. He publishes a map comparing the distribution of black rhino in 1966 and 1983, illustrating the shift of the population into Etosha National Park and the relative depopulation of the species in the north-west^[142].

Source: scan from Joubert 1984, p. 14.

For Damaraland it is observed that,

the rhino population has been extensively investigated by the NWT and it has been found that numbers are healthy and viable breeding groups are present in secluded areas where it has become difficult for would-be poachers to gain access without being detected by NWT patrols. A complete ‘identikit’ for each rhino observed has been drawn up, which records all identification features plus good close-up photographs. Spoor (footprint) sizes are also recorded, which enable the NWT to identify which rhinos are using a particular waterhole. Elephants are also recorded and identified by photographs and family group size, but further equipment and staff are desperately needed.He publishes a map comparing the distribution of black rhino in 1966 and 1983, illustrating the shift of the population into Etosha National Park and the relative depopulation of the species in the north-west.

   It is claimed that if the elephants and rhinos are exterminated from this desert it would prove almost impossible to replace them with animals from other places since the knowledge of the whereabouts of hidden waterholes, which are sometimes as much as 70 km apart, is passed on from generation to generation.^[143]

1989

A Rehoboth resident shoots five rhinos in Damaraland (two in the Palmwag concession) and SNCO Rudi Loutit plus DNC vet Pete Morkel undertake crisis management through ‘the first ever de-horning of wild rhino in vulnerable areas south of the cordon [vet] fence’^[144]. Owen-Smith reports that ten rhino are translocated to Waterberg Plateau Park^[145].

1991

The MET conducts the first black rhino census in north-west Namibia, in conjunction with the Save the Rhino Trust, other NGOs and private people that volunteered to help^[146]. More black rhino are dehorned by personnel of the MWCT^[147]. Three rhino are translocated to Hardap (one each from Wereldsend, old farms/’Poacher’s Camp’ and ‘Khowarib plains’)^[148].

1991-1993

Conservation biologists Joel Berger and Carol Cunningham, at the time with the ‘Program in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology’, University of Nevada, study ‘economic and biological implications of [black rhino] horn removal’ [see 1989, 1991] in Etosha National Park and the west of the former ‘Damaraland’ (Springbok River, Doros Crater and ** areas)^[149]. They find that,

- ‘horn regrowth is rapid, averaging nearly 9 cm of total horn per animal per year, … [suggesting] that ‘new horns on an average animal are worth $1775-7750 one year after dehorning’;

- ‘poachers fail to discriminate between large- and small-horned rhinos’ so ‘recently-dehorned animals may not be immune from poaching’;

- ‘neither horned nor hornless rhinos differed in their vulnerability to poachers more than four years after the initial dehorning’;

- female rhinos vary ‘naturally in horn length’, and ‘calf age and not horn size affected responsiveness to dangerous predators such as lions (Panthera leo) and spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta)’^[150], with calf-deaths corresponding with predator presence rather than dehorning, implying that ‘demographic viability’ may not necessarily improve with dehorning^[151];

- ‘poachers do not discriminate among rhino horn sizes’, confirming the observation by Archie ǂGawuseb, Berger and Cunningham’s Damara / ǂNūkhoen research assistant who had formerly been ‘convicted of felony rhino poaching’ that ‘preferences for horn size trophies do not exist’ and suggesting that ‘even animals with small regrown horns are as likely to be killed as animals who have not been dehorned’^[152].

1992

The first complete rhino census of the entire range area is carried out, involving SRT, MWCT and the Community Game Guards^[153]. The African black rhino (Diceros bicornis) population has fallen to below 2,500 from an estimated 65,000 in 1970^[154].

1993

Namibia’s Black Rhino Custodianship Program begins on 14 April, ‘when the first six animals [from national parks] were translocated to a freehold farm under a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the farmer and MET [presumably then MWCT]’^[155]. On 29 July five more black rhino are moved to a second farm, these two farms having a combined area of 29,300 hectares (72,400 acres)^[156]. Black rhinos are state-owned but ‘white rhinos are not part of the custodianship program because they can be privately owned’:

[t]he concept of the Black Rhino Custodianship Program [BRCP] is that breeding nuclei of the animals be relocated as free-ranging populations to suitable habitat on farmland and communal conservancies where the landholders are willing and able to undertake the responsibility of providing basic care and security to them.

   Other prerequisites for the BRC Program are that the applicant must be a bona fide landowner; the property must be appropriately fenced for black rhino; the property must be at least 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) and financially sound; and the applicant must be willing to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism [covering ownership, care, monitoring, research and filming, etc.].^[157]

Applying properties are assessed and scored ‘by senior MET officials and the Protected Resources Division of the Namibian Police’^[158].

A prominent Gobabis rancher in the Omaheke is ‘caught in a police sting operation in South Africa with forty-two elephant tusks and six rhino horns’ and one of the three farms he sells so as to pay his fine is Skoonheid which becomes a resettlement farm for Ju|’hoansi^[159].

1994

Three rhino are poached in the north-west this year^[160].

1995

One rhino is poached in the northwest in this year^[161].

1997-1998

Rhino census finds that numbers have doubled since 1982, ‘calculated from animals identified in 1986/7’ (see above)^[162].

1998

Torra Conservancy is the first conservancy in black rhino range, and rapidly became financially self-sufficient due to a lucrative tourism joint venture with Wilderness Safaris^[163].

2002

The 2002 black rhino census in north-west Namibia estimates the total population to be 136 for the west Kunene population^[164].

2003

A MET Black Rhino Conservation Strategy for Namibia is established^[165]. The late Mike Hearn reports apparently density-dependent declines in black rhino population growth rates over the preceding 15 years, with growth rates declining as the population grew over these years: he records growth rates of 3.27%/annum over preceding five years (although 5% in preceding two years linked with three years of good rainfall); and 2.73% over the preceding 10 years^[166]. Hearn describes black rhino vulnerability to human-induced disturbance (HID) in the following terms:

[t]he black rhino in North-western Namibia are particularly vulnerable to HID due to the observed ecological stress on the population. Also, current conservancy legislation falls short of resolving the shortcomings of the present land tenure regime, by which land remains unequally distributed between settler and indigenous farmers, and tenure within the communal areas remains insecure. This results in no means of regulating access rights of farmers and visitors to the area. HID in this area includes: tourism activities, such as trips using 4x4 vehicles or aeroplanes; monitoring of wildlife by MET rangers, conservancies and NGO's; and, local activities, mainly on the periphery of the range, including livestock grazing and consumptive use of wildlife resources.^[167] 

Hearn also expresses the following concerns:

- whether the limited rights of conservancies provide strong enough incentives for sustainable resource use;

- the lack of group land tenure undermines the ability of the conservancy institution to enforce zoning of areas for wildlife and controlling tourism;

- a lack of confidence that MET will devolve further rights that give communities the freedom to make their own decisions;

- a growing gap between the limited rights conservancies have to deal with problem animals and the expectation of conservancy members that such problems will be effectively managed by the institution;

- a need to fully integrate conservancies into government's overall decentralisation policy to ensure integrated land use planning and avoid duplication; and,

- to develop macro-economic policies that give more recognition to wildlife and the tourism sector as efficient and productive forms of land use and, with appropriate incentives, see the removal of subsidies on other forms of land use.^[168] 

Hearn recommends that ‘rhino ecological and security needs at the local level’ and ‘the ongoing conservancy management planning process’ be integrated with ‘the MET’s Directorate of Tourism’s  North-west Tourism Plan and the Directorate of Parks and Wildlife’s proposed feasibility study for strengthening conservancy land tenure rights through the proclamation of a multi-use IUCN Category VI Protected Area in the northwest’^[169]. Hearn also recommends:

- the hosting of a workshop to devolve the findings of this study to traditional authorities and conservancy bodies to ensure regional by-in of biological management goals for the Kunene population of black rhino;

- a broader survey of community perceptions towards rhino and future management is conducted to support the future drafting of a Kunene management plan for black rhino^[170];

- this management plan should consider the design and development of mechanisms to regulate access into the rhino area, tourism concession areas and registered conservancies as part of a broader land use plan;

- a study to quantify tourism impacts on rhino would need to be conducted to mitigate some of the problems associated with access, without removing opportunities for development^[171];…

- to better understand stocking levels the continued ground truthing of Ecological Land Units (ELU's), as part of the habitat assessment, to refine the first draft of the habitat suitability model^[172];

- [in consideration of the] … density-dependent factors currently limit growth in the optimal habitat (Zone 6) a translocation programme is recommended as an intervention strategy with a view to determining acceptable levels of off-take that maximise optimal growth. To do this the removal of at least ten animals from areas with the highest density of animals, e.g. the mountains area of the Palmwag concession - revised zone 6, is strongly advised^[173]. [It is argued that] [m]onitoring the population response to this off-take will allow for the development of an adaptive management regime sensitive to the fluctuations in the resource base and the prevailing environmental conditions. Managing the densities of other browsers and habitat management should also be considered;^[174] 

- [a]ny implemented translocation programme should be conducted with the full involvement of communal conservancies. Prior to considering sites for reintroduction guidelines or protocol need to be developed to prioritise allocation - e.g. to those areas identified from studies of: habitat suitability; historical distribution; and, where communities are willing to invest in rhino management through local institutes;

- [t]hough well developed the strengthening of community ties within the programme should be considered to allow formal participation of traditional leaders and registered conservancies in the management of black rhino in the region. In the last year the development of the MET's Rhino Technical Advisory Committee (RTAG) is seen as a positive step in this direction. Co-opting conservancy and community input on this committee will go a long way to the recognition of the community's stake in the survival of the black rhino in the region.^[175] 

Overall, Hearn writes in this year that,

One of the greatest strengths of Namibia’s black rhino conservation programme is a diverse stakeholding in management. This includes: the state in the protected area network; the commercial farming sector, with rhino being managed under the MET custodianship scheme; and, the management by conservancies and NGO's of black rhino, both on communal and privately owned farms.^[176] 

In this year,

[t]he Rhino Management Committee (RMC) is the decision making body on conservation of rhino in the Namibia. A Rhino Technical Advisory Group (RTAG), Chaired by the Rhino coordinator, overseas the implementation of the National Management Plan and makes recommendations to the RMC. The rhino custodianship manager and two representatives from the Directorate of Parks and Wildlife Management are permanent members of the RTAG. The RTAG co-opts other members from various sectors and stakeholders (government, private, NGO and community representation) to provide specialist input as and when required.^[177] 

2004

Simson !Uriǂkhob, later (from 2014) CEO of Save the Rhino Trust, carries out interview-based and ecology field research in ǁHuab, ǂKhoadiǁhoas, and Omatendeka conservancies concerning attitudes to wildlife and black rhino with a view towards the translocation of animals to these conservancies^[178]. At Omuramba Chief Lucky Kasaona expresses concern on 19th July (in interview to Simson !Uriǂkhob, SRT) about the continuing presence of people who had moved south from Opuwo area to Omatendeka in 1994^[179]. The Black Rhino Custodianship Programme (BRCP), to date on commercial farms only, is joined by a communal area conservancy, with four animals ‘introduced into a fenced core area’^[180].

2007

Black rhino, eland and black-faced impala re-introduced into ǂKhoadiǁhôas by MET^[181].

2009

The MET establishes ‘two rhino populations in much more arid southern Namibia – one group at the Fish River and one at the Orange River’ (‘a previous attempt to re-introduce rhinos to the south, in Naute Game Park, had failed’), requiring ‘lengthy boma (corral) training in Etosha National Park as well as at the receiving farms’^[182].

2010

The MET tries ‘to relocate black rhinos to communal conservancies in the arid extreme northwest of Namibia, but these attempts failed, likely because of the competition from community livestock around water points, which caused the rhinos to wander in search of less disturbance’^[183].

2016-2020

182 rhinos are dehorned on 18 BRCP custodianship properties, and ‘many more in the national parks’^[184].

2017

The growth rate for black rhino in the BRCP is 8.1% (the Namibian national growth rate is 6%)^[185].

2018

Due to drastic increases in poaching the growth rate for black rhino on custodian properties as part of the BRCP drops to 7.6% (from 8.1% in 2017)^[186].

2020

Regarding black rhino, it is reported that,

Namibia’s vision for its black rhinoceros is that by 2030 Diceros bicornis bicornis will be established in viable, healthy breeding populations throughout its former range [see below] [?check Vision 2030 docs for mention of this]; and that it will be sustainably utilized through photo tourism and conservation hunting. One of the strategic objectives of Vision 2030 is to establish black rhinos across all three of Namibia’s land-tenure systems – state-protected areas, communal conservancies and private freeholds – in order to use all available vacant habitat.^[187]

In the same report it is also written that ‘[sp]arked by Vision 2030, after careful planning and preparation Namibia’s Black Rhino Custodianship Program officially kicked off on April 14, 1993 …’^[188], but Vision 2030 was launched only in 2004.

By 2020 ‘the black rhino population at the Orange River is hugely successful, having increased to 11 animals from four (two bulls and two cows)’ although ‘the Fish River rhinos have not done so well’: - most of these animals came from Etosha National Park and have ‘learned to eat the toxic euphorbias of southern Namibia’^[189].

In sum, regarding the BRCP:

27 years after the first animals were translocated, 35 land units are part of the Black Rhino Custodianship program—25 commercial farms or game ranches and 10 communal conservancies. The 25 freehold custodians, plus one core area in a conservancy, cover an area of 769,000 hectares (1.97 million acres) and the nine Kunene conservancies cover a combined area of 2,674,100 hectares (6.61 million acres). The custodianship program presently hosts an estimated 560 black rhinos on freehold land and a further 150 in conservancies.

   Over the years, nine freehold custodians and one communal custodian have exited the program for various reasons, resulting in a loss of more than 85,000 hectares (210,000 acres) of prime habitat for rhino conservation in the private sector, which potentially could have accommodated more than 150 rhinos. The impact of habitat loss on conservation remains a threat of immeasurable magnitude, and it is no different for the black rhinoceros. Losing custodians should therefore be avoided at all costs, if possible. Remarkably, and regrettably, no financial support was ever available to assist custodians, even in providing security, which is very costly. This is testimony to the commitment to conservation of the participants in the program.

   … As the individual populations increased, the rate of growth was expected to slow down, and this has indeed occurred. Nonetheless, the custodianship rhino populations in aggregate continue to increase at a near-optimal rate. The long-term average growth rate for the custodian metapopulation—that is, our 560 black rhinos on custodial properties—stands at 8.7%, from 1994 to 2019.

   The 150 animals in conservancies are excluded from the calculation as they are in extremely arid areas and are thus affected badly by drought, so their population growth is the lowest in the country. Still, we have already achieved Vision 2030, as we currently have just over 2,000 black rhinos in Namibia, with approximately 1,500 in the rest of the country (at Etosha National Park and other smaller parks). Namibia now holds more than 90% of the world’s wild black rhinos. …

   One way to ensure a direct benefit to custodians is via conservation hunting (as trophy hunting is called in Namibia). Old breeding bulls are displaced by younger bulls, who then take over dominance and defend their females against competitors. Often, in such fights for dominance, the older bull is terminally injured. Older bulls in the post-reproductive phase are therefore considered for conservation hunting in order to generate income.

   The first instances of conservation hunting of custodianship rhinos have taken place. However, the scale of program costs versus the potential for recovery through hunting is a considerable challenge and other means of creating revenue must be explored as well.^[190]

An online map published this year contributes detailed information on this former range by mapping documented historical references to encounters with rhino in south-western Africa – see below:

Historical distribution of black rhino, based on documented encounters in a spatialised reading of referenced historical texts, combined with other reviews (notably Joubert 1871, 1984 and Rookmaaker 2007). Source: Sullivan and Muntifering 2020, p. 5.

Nb. This screenshot only shows placemarks for animals fairly definitively identified in the reviewed literature as ‘black rhino’ and thus as Diceros bicornis bicornis. The online version of the map is linked at https://www.futurepasts.net/historical-references-rhino-namibia. Here, some – perhaps many – of the rhinos reported in the west that are not identified as either ‘white’ or ‘black’, as well as those putatively identified as ‘white’, might in fact have been D. bicornis bicornis, i.e. it is probable that the placemarks on this map under-record known historical encounters with black rhino.