Mutilated rhino treated with elephant skin bandage

Yamiche Alcindor | USA TODAY

A rhino injured after poachers mutilated its face to pull out its horns is being treated with a bandage made from an unusual source: elephant skin.

Poachers shot the 12-year-old rhino on Aug. 5 at a wildlife park in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.

Johan Marais, a wildlife surgeon at the University of Pretoria, told USA TODAY poachers killed the rhino's calf, then shot the mother who lay unconscious as the poachers cut through her face to take out the horns.

However, the poachers got away with only the rhino's front horn, leaving the second back horn damaged with deep grooves in it. Marais said he believes the rhino may have woken up, causing the poachers to flee.

"This is a horrific injury and she must be in immense pain," Marais said. "They hacked off her front horn really deeply and then they started with the back horn."

The rhino is named Ithemba, which means "hope" in Zulu, said Marais, who works for Saving the Survivors, an organization committed to rescuing and medically treating injured endangered species.

To treat the injury, Ithemba had to be sedated Monday for about two hours. During the surgery, Marais said he had to cut away dead tissue from the badly infected wound, cover it with medical dressings and then place an antibacterial sponge over it. Next, he had to find a bandage to cover it all.

"We have been looking for a material that is strong, lightweight and pliable for us to work with it and conform it to the actual wound and to the face of the rhino," Marais said. "This is the first time I have tried elephant skin, which is tough." That's a good thing, because Ithemba will eventually go rub her face because it itches, he added.

Marais said he installed the elephant skin bandage with stainless-steel wires and hopes it will last four to five weeks. He called it "an experimental work in progress."

In the past, Marais has tried skin from a kudu — a species of antelope — on injured rhinos but that proved not strong enough because it tore. He also tried hippo skin, but that was too thick. He has used plastic or fiberglass shields, which aren't flexible enough for a rhino's face

Meanwhile, Ithemba seems to be healing well, although veterinarians plan to treat her for at least another year.

In South Africa, poachers killed more than 1,200 rhinos last year. The killings reflect growing demands for rhino horns in parts of Asia where the horns are believed to have medical benefits, symbolize higher social statuses and are used to create expensive jewelry, Marais said.

"The amount of trauma rhinos experience by the hand of man is terrible. It’s atrocious," Marais said. "There’s no solution as yet on what we can do worldwide to actually curb this. We are in trouble."