“My only option was to pretend to be a tree”

Black rhinos in Namibia

- BY JESS STEVENS

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO 19-year-old me, back when I was doing my undergraduate degree in zoology and had a chance to work in the industry for a year. Most of my fellow students stayed relatively local but some of us chose to venture further afield. Pretty far afield, in my case: the middle of the Namibian bush, to conserve rhinos for the Rhino Momma Project.

There, my regular duties included patrolling the reserve to check camera-traps and search for signs of rhinos in the environment. One morning, I chanced upon some tracks leading into thick vegetation – too thick for my truck. This was black rhino territory, the more aggressive of the African rhinos, but they were hardly ever seen. So I decided to take a chance and follow the tracks on foot to see if they led to a water hole or evidence of mud-bath use.