David Beresford
It was not quite Noah’s Ark. But the ecstatic look on the face of the Israeli, Shai Doron, sitting in a tent on a KwaZulu-Natal hillside last weekend must have been there on the face of the patriarch when the animals tripped in two-by-two.
Doron, the director of the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem, had just forked out R56 000 to become the proud owner of eight giraffe in the annual game auction at the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Reserve, which set a new record on Saturday.
More than 200 buyers and curious spectators crowded under a giant marquee in the park to watch dealers bid more than R8,8-million for animals to stock zoos, safari parks and game ranches as well as to provide fodder for the cannons of the world’s dwindling band of not-so-great white hunters.
Bargain hunters could snap up springbok for R387 apiece, zebra for R1 441, nyala for R2 340 and kudu for a mere R1 054. But the centre of attention were the reserve’s famous rhino, which fetched up to R150 000 each (for the black variety).
The park claims to have effectively rescued the white rhino from extinction and it was a measure of its success that it was able to put up 133 of the giant beasts for sale, for an average of R43 700.
The purchase price is, of course, not all the expense involved if one wants to keep a pet white rhino. Would-be bidders were presented with a pamphlet offering tips on managing the creature on a country estate: in ideal conditions (with a suitable variety of succulent grasses), one of the massive ungulates needs 40 hectares to graze and owners are reminded not to forget the game-guards, “to reduce the threat of poaching”.
Rhino horns are the stuff of poachers’ dreams, currently fetching $20 000 per kilo — a good horn weighing in at between eight and
11kg — in Hong Kong and Beijing for their legendary aphrodisiac qualities. But it is the macho fantasies of Westerners as much as the Chinese pursuit of sexual longevity which gives the rhino its value.
The top-selling white rhino, with an impressive 24- inch horn, went for R84 000 to a game rancher who is expected to sell it — at a huge profit — as a trophy to an American hunter, who will shoot the animal on his land.
Once “bagged” the rhino’s horn is carefully removed and the head is chopped off and left next to an anthill to be picked clean. The skull is then covered with plastic skin and the horn reattached so that the trophy can be mounted on the wall of the hunter, to be pointed out as evidence of his adventures in the wilds of Africa.
Buying rhino is not without its risks, as evidenced by the presence of a salesman sitting at an insurance desk next to the marquee. He was offering cover on the animals in transit for 30% of the purchase price — a premium based on an estimate as to how many of the creatures shatter their precious horns on their way to their new homes.
The most valuable animals up for sale on Saturday have a more secure future than the white rhinos. Six of the smaller and more aggressive black rhino — still an endangered species and as such not subject to shooting, or export — were knocked down to a private game reserve in Mpumalanga for a total of R900 000.
But the Jerusalem zoo director was not interested; he got two rhino at the auction last year.
Shai Doron’s ambition is to stock up with all the animals mentioned in the Old Testament. He was not sure whether the giraffe met his biblical criteria — “some people say the Zemer was a giraffe,” he said hopefully, adding philosophically: “You must have giraffes in a zoo.”
The eight giraffe, sold in two batches, were in fact something of an embarrassment of riches for Doron, in that he only had room for six in his zoo. Eventually he sold one to a South African reserve and donated the other back to the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi park as a conservation gesture.
He tried to flog the two surplus males to the Saudi Arabian representative, but he was only interested in a pair for mating. “So the peace process will have to wait a little bit longer,” laughed the Israeli.