Johan Marais spots a rhinoceros from a helicopter and shoots it with a tranquilizer dart. Another five minutes will pass before the rhino goes down. A team is ready on the ground to make sure the animal is well positioned when it loses consciousness. A rhinoceros is so massive that if it falls asleep on its legs, blood flow could be cut off, leading to circulatory problems and significant injury.
When Marais approaches the unconscious rhino, he covers its eyes to protect them and then uses a chainsaw to cut off its horns, down to about 10 centimeters, which avoids cutting into living tissue and causing a hemorrhage of the horn so that he doesn’t cut into living tissue, which could cause a hemorrhage.
