If He Catches Sight Of The
Man At All, It Must Be After He Has Approached To Pretty Close
Range, For Only At Close Range Are The Rhino's Eyes Effective.
Then He Is Quite Likely To Finish What Was At First A Blind Dash
By A Genuine Charge.
Whether this is from malice or from the
panicky feeling that he is now too close to attempt to get away,
I never was able determine.
It is probably in the majority of
cases the latter. This seems indicated by the fact that the
rhino, if avoided in his first rush, will generally charge right
through and keep on going. Occasionally, however, he will whirl
and come back to the attack. There can then be no doubt that he
actually intends mischief.
Nor must it be forgotten that with these animals, AS WITH ALL
OTHERS, not enough account is taken of individual variation.
They, as well as man, and as well as other animals, have their
cowards, their fighters, their slothful and their enterprising.
And, too, there seem to be truculent and peaceful districts.
North of Mt. Kenia, between that peak and the Northern Guaso
Nyero River, we saw many rhinos, none of which showed the
slightest disposition to turn ugly. In fact, they were so
peaceful that they scrabbled off as fast as they could go every
time they either scented, heard, or SAW us; and in their flight
they held their noses up, not down. In the wide angle between the
Tana and Thika rivers, and comprising the Yatta Plains, and in
the thickets of the Tsavo, the rhinoceroses generally ran nose
down in a position of attack and were much inclined to let their
angry passions master them at the sight of man. Thus we never had
our safari scattered by rhinoceroses in the former district,
while in the latter the boys were up trees six times in the
course of one morning! Carl Akeley, with a moving picture
machine, could not tease a charge out of a rhino in a dozen
tries, while Dugmore, in a different part of the country, was so
chivied about that he finally left the district to avoid killing
any more of the brutes in self-defence!
The fact of the matter is that the rhinoceros is neither animated
by the implacable man-destroying passion ascribed to him by the
amateur hunter, nor is he so purposeless and haphazard in his
rushes as some would have us believe. On being disturbed his
instinct is to get away. He generally tries to get away in the
direction of the disturbance, or upwind, as the case may be. If
he catches sight of the cause of disturbance he is apt to try to
trample and gore it, whatever it is. As his sight is short, he
will sometimes so inflict punishment on unoffending bushes. In
doing this he is probably not animated by a consuming destructive
blind rage, but by a naturally pugnacious desire to eliminate
sources of annoyance. Missing a definite object, he thunders
right through and disappears without trying again to discover
what has aroused him.
This first rush is not a charge in the sense that it is an attack
on a definite object. It may not, and probably will not, amount
to a charge at all, for the beast will blunder through without
ever defining more clearly the object of his blind dash. That
dash is likely, however, at any moment, to turn into a definite
charge should the rhinoceros happen to catch sight of his
disturber. Whether the impelling motive would then be a mistaken
notion that on the part of the beast he was so close he had to
fight, or just plain malice, would not matter. At such times the
intended victim is not interested in the rhino's mental
processes.
Owing to his size, his powerful armament, and his incredible
quickness the rhinoceros is a dangerous animal at all times, to
be treated with respect and due caution. This is proved by the
number of white men, out of a sparse population, that are
annually tossed and killed by the brutes, and by the promptness
with which the natives take to trees-thorn trees at that!-when
the cry of faru! is raised. As he comes rushing in your
direction, head down and long weapon pointed, tail rigidly erect,
ears up, the earth trembling with his tread and the air with his
snorts, you suddenly feel very small and ineffective.
If you keep cool, however, it is probable that the encounter will
result only in a lot of mental perturbation for the rhino and a
bit of excitement for yourself. If there is any cover you should
duck down behind it and move rapidly but quietly to one side or
another of the line of advance. If there is no cover, you should
crouch low and hold still. The chances are he will pass to one
side or the other of you, and go snorting away into the distance.
Keep your eye on him very closely. If he swerves definitely in
your direction, AND DROPS HIS HEAD A LITTLE LOWER, it would be
just as well to open fire. Provided the beast was still far
enough away to give me "sea-room," I used to put a small bullet
in the flesh of the outer part of the shoulder. The wound thus
inflicted was not at all serious, but the shock of the bullet
usually turned the beast. This was generally in the direction of
the wounded shoulder, which would indicate that the brute turned
toward the apparent source of the attack, probably for the
purpose of getting even. At any rate, the shot turned the rush to
one side, and the rhinoceros, as usual, went right on through.
If, however, he seemed to mean business, or was too close for
comfort, the point to aim for was the neck just above the lowered
horn.
In my own experience I came to establish a "dead line" about
twenty yards from myself.
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