A visit to Namibia’s Gamsberg Ranch, home of the Habitat for Rhino project, shows that conserving rhino habitat benefits more than rhinos.
Photo above: Big Daddy, now 22 years old, was one of the original rhinos brought to Gamsberg Ranch when Habitat for Rhino began. (Photo by Hilary Hurt)
Namibia’s Gamsberg Ranch is the home of one of Namibia’s finest private conservation initiatives, Habitat for Rhino, run by Robin and Pauline Hurt. I visited the ranch last May following an exceptional buffalo hunt in the Caprivi, where I shot four non-trophy “own use” buffalo in four days to provide meat for Namibia’s Special Field Forces on anti-poaching and border patrols.
My wife, Alice, and I accompanied Dan Mousley of Robin Hurt Safaris, who had organized the buffalo hunt and acted as PH, back to Gamsberg Ranch. We had stayed there in 2023 when Dan had taken us on a tour of Namibia including the famous dunes, desert, and coastal area.
This time we had the pleasure of presenting Robin and Pauline with the Fieldsports Conservation Award, which had been awarded just prior to our journey and which we had carried to Namibia at the request of Fieldsports, Tweed Media, and Rigby. This is a well-deserved award for all their work on rhino conservation at Gamsberg.
Gamsberg is a special area, and going out each day you never know what you will see, including one or more of the thirteen Southern white rhinos that call the ranch home. The ranch is open country, in part bordered by the mountains to the north. It is only partly fenced in the north and east where the neighbors have cattle. They are low fences and game can move about freely, and does so.
The rhinos inhabit an area of around 22,800 acres in which they stay largely due to the mountainous nature of the land. This area has twenty-four-hour anti-poaching patrols. There are CCTC cameras on the main road entrances, and in addition there are trail cameras across the area for an ongoing study of leopards.
The original male rhino, Big Daddy, who is twenty-two years old, is a magnificent specimen of Southern white rhinoceros, and best given a wide berth. He is becoming aggressive and recently destroyed a solar pump storage tank. He will need to be moved soon to prevent him mating with his daughters.
It rained during our stay. Needless to say, this is unusual–not exactly a downpour, but rather patchy showers. During the week this resulted in a flush of new green grass and some flowers.
The quiver trees, Aloe (now Aloidendron) dichotoma, were in flower. These trees only grow well and develop where there is no or little pollution. Gamsberg Ranch has a substantial proportion of the Namibian population. The name comes from the San people’s use of hollowed out branches as arrow quivers.
These trees grow in an area referred to as the “Badlands,” a hilly, rocky area. All of the roads at Gamsberg were built by Robin, Dan, and his team, and considering the rocky and varied nature of the terrain, they are pretty good. However, in the Badlands there are many blind summits, which Robin drives with confidence because of his thorough knowledge of the roads. The road may turn sharply right or left beyond the summit, which can be hair-raising for new passengers, but we were used to Robin’s superlative driving ability gained through sixty years of driving on bush roads and indeed building them.
During our daily drives we were treated to views of a wide variety of game, including springbok, gemsbok, oryx, black wildebeest, blue wildebeest, red hartebeest, Burchell and mountain (Hartmann) zebra, sable, klipspringer, steenbok, common duiker, warthog, rock hyrax, hares, baboons, banded mongoose, waterbuck, and kudu.
The kudu bulls were just beginning to arrive for the rut, which was about to start with the arrival of colder weather and the cows coming into estrus. There are also aardwolf and aardvark, which we were not lucky enough to see, and brown hyena. Meercats are also present, and there is one large group with burrows in an old termite mound which can be seen enjoying the early morning sunshine on their mound. The area has a large population of springbok and gemsbok in particular, and the flush of new grass brought large congregations feeding on it, especially the springbok.
On a previous hunt with Robin I shot a very large springbok, a Hartmann zebra and an old black wildebeest, all nice trophies. Income from hunting at Gamsberg helps support the costs of maintaining the rhino reserve, which are not insubstantial. This time, I shot springbok for leopard bait and a mature male gemsbok for meat. Robin has a .300 WSM Tikka rifle with a good scope, which performs well the longer shots sometimes needed at Gamsberg. We always look for a large warthog during our visits, but they always appear just after we leave.
Each day, we would leave the vehicle and Robin would lead us on a walk. While walking, one might spot any of the game or even the rhinos. Being close to them on foot is a special experience, unless it is Big Daddy, and then you don’t get close–just back off quietly and quickly!
On one occasion we came across some armored crickets, Acanthoplus discoidalis, feeding on the dry remains of a wildebeest, probably killed by a leopard. These are spectacular insects found only in Namibia, part of South Africa, and Angola.
Another treat, for me at least, with my interest in herpetology, was seeing a horned adder, Bitis caudalis. This is a really beautiful little snake which is very poisonous. We found another young one later, dead, having been trodden on by a gemsbok or zebra.
We saw many species of bird including ostriches, the enormous kori bustard and sociable weaver birds, small sparrow-size birds which build a large communal nest occupied by many individuals. When we photographed them we were advised not to stand underneath the nest, as snakes seeking birds or eggs occasionally drop out.
Every morning and evening we were treated to gorgeous colors with the sunrise and sunsets. Gamsberg is truly a remarkable and beautiful place in a remarkable country. Our time there passed much too quickly.
About Habitat for Rhino
Habitat for Rhino is a private rhino conservation project in Namibia started by the Hurt family in 2014. The main purpose of this project, as the name indicates. is to provide safe habitat for rhinos on private land. The project started out with five white rhinos: Big Daddy, Outjo, Maerua, Moringa (“Big Mama”), and her son, Mannix. Eight baby rhinos have been born within the conservancy, which is a great success.
White rhinos are under heavy threat by poaching. Habitat for Rhino contributes to the survival of the species by providing habitat and protection for them, two of the most critical key factors to their survival. An armed anti-poaching team operates on foot, tracking the rhinos and patrolling the borders of the reserve.
The Habitat for Rhino project wouldn’t be viable without the money generated by plains-game hunting and photography trips hosted on the property. Robin and his team of professional hunters and staff are guardians of the landscape, caring for the large numbers of wild animals that live on their land. Without funds generated from safaris and a loyal clientele, rhino conservation cannot exist. (No rhinos are hunted at Gamsberg.)
John Rigby & Co. recently partnered with Pauline and Robin to support the project. Rigby’s history is closely interwoven with legends of big-game hunting and their conservation work. Rigby has produced a limited-edition run of twelve London Best rifles in .350, each one individually engraved with the name of one of the rhinos at Gamsberg. They feature the Habitat for Rhino logo engraved on the floorplate. A significant percentage of money from the sale of each rifle will go back to Habitat for Rhino. The rifles are handmade in Rigby’s London workshop on Mauser single square bridge actions, taking designs, proportions and dimensions from the brand’s historic archives.
Thanks to the dedication of conservationists like Pauline and Robin, the future finally looks a little brighter for the southern white rhino. In 2023, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission’s African Rhino Specialist Group reported the first rise in the white rhino population in a decade.
Learn more about Habitat for Rhino and donate to the effort at conservationforce.com/rhino-conservation. See more about Rigby rifles at johnrigbyandco.com.
