A baby rhino injured as he tried to protect his mother from poachers is tenderly fed by former England cricket captain Kevin Pietersen.
Kevin, 38, is hosting a two-part TV documentary about the desperate battle to halt cash-hungry gangs in Kruger National Park, South Africa.
It will feature the brave little rhino, now named Arthur, who was hacked with a machete and left with injuries to his foot and back. Arthur’s white rhino mother was found dead with both her horns removed.
Currently, three rhinos a day are slaughtered for their horns and experts say if rates of poaching remain the same, rhinos will die out by 2025.
Kevin, who grew up in South Africa, said: “Rhino horns are the most expensive commodity on the black market. Young orphans like Arthur can die from the stress – traumatised by watching their mothers slaughtered.”
Petronel Nieuwoudt, founder of Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary, and one of the first on the scene to care for Arthur, said: “His mum has been brutally killed. Arthur tried to fight but they got to him with a machete.”
She sees poachers as victims, too, explaining: “We can’t solve the situation by getting to people who have no water, no money and who don’t understand that the rhino is going. The people making millions are the real criminals.”
