Love Bites ; Love Kills ! In A Rhino's World

Kaziranga National Park

I’ve been meaning to make this post for a while now and so I finally got around to getting the old data out for it. This happened back in 2022 and a day after my wife and I were chased off by the male tusker, which I wrote about in “Mother Nature’s Wedding Gift”. I sincerely apologize for the quality of the first couple of pictures. They woulden't be here if it wasn't for the story of the sighting.

So, it was April 2022 and like always, I’d planned to do Burapahar Range in Kaziranga last. It’s towards Guwahati and just makes more sense to drive my own car till there on the last day and do it on the way out towards home. Chetri had started earlier given his open vehicle with tyre pressure adjusted for forest driving and we were off as soon as I parked, hoping to at least see some Gibbons which are seen mostly only in this range of the reserve. It was overcast as you can see and even drizzling in intervals. Overall horrible conditions to be taking pictures and I was pretty sure that the morning would be a washed out flop show as far as pictures were concerned.

As we were driving along, we saw two rhinos at a pool. One (Pic : 1) was watching the other rolling around in the water (Pic : 2). We parked and Chetri concluded that this had to be a mating pair given their behavior. The one in the water got up in a while and the pair went up the hill at the end of the pool. Our forest trail went up around the pool as well and we ended up at the same plateau that they were at a little later. When we finally had them in sight again, they were very close to each other. Rhinos usually don’t get that close except mothers and claves and both Chetri and I were just hoping for some interaction between the two to capture (Pics 3 & 4). What happened next, totally took us all by surprise.

The Female was standing around when the male got up, walked around her and took a nip straight at her face. Girl backed off and he kept doing it. Repeatedly going at her with his teeth. (Pics : 5 – 8). Girl Rhino’s face was already decorated with fresh scars that most probably came from him. She had had enough and she pushed back. Our luck that we were there to witness it. As she retaliated, it was like a spark in a tinder box. I would have never guessed that these guys can even move so fast. There was shoving, pushing, charging, horn thrusts and body turns. The pollen from the flowers was flying all over their bodies and the battle ground.

I was taking pictures continuously, my wife was dead silent, speechless and Chetri and dropped his camera to the seat by his side and started his car. Like the afternoon before, the predicament was deciding which direction to go. Maybe they had not seen us and movement would just draw them to us in their anger. The opportunity finally came after he dropped on her horn (Pic : 11) and she shoved him off to the left (of where the action was happening) and kept pushing him backwards (Pic: 12). Our trail was headed to the right and Chetri didn’t hesitate to book it just as they were getting further away. Man ! the ground shook when these two were stomping about.

We successfully made our exit around them with our hearts in our throats and didn't go back that way on our way out. You don't mess with pissed off bohemoths. Well, that’s Rhino love for you. Individuals die in Rhino courtship all the time. That’s something we learnt that day. What an adventure this was to be the icing on the cake for the most awesome trip trip to Kaziranga.

Since that trip, Ive learnt that Tigers, Leopards and Lions are never a threat if you're in a vehicle. It's the Buffalow, the Elephants, the Rhino that you watch your back for even in a vehicle. Herbivores may seem docile and boring but they are the ones who can flip your vehicle and turn a safari bad. Carnivores, just don’t have the strength or assets to challenge cars.