KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLIN6AE. BAND 48. N:0 5. 123 



It is wonderful how often some people are )-charged» by Rhinos, and in some 

 cases it is no doubt a bona fide belief, and some people may perhaps have had worse 

 luck with those creatures than others, or the Rhinos may be more fierce in some 

 districts. 



But on the other hand it is very easy to produce an effect which looks as if 

 a Rhinoceros charged. A man approaches such an animal from its lee side and then 

 he sends a native around to the windside. As soon as the Rhino perceives the taint 

 it starts. If it runs up wind it charges the native, if in any other direction it charges 

 somebody else! 



Two Rhinoceroses are allowed on a license, and the charging ones are not 

 counted. With the great number of sportsmen now visiting British East Africa two 

 Rhinoceroses on each license is too much, and a not too small a fee ought to be paid 

 for the killing of every charging Rhinoceros as well. I suspect that the number 

 of such »bad brutes » would not be so great then as it is reported to be now. It 

 may appear hard that one should be obliged to pay for the killing of a charging 

 dangerous beast, but those people who visit East Africa solely for the purpose of 

 shooting and bringing home »trophies» can no doubt afford to pay something for 

 saving their lifes, if need be. 



In settled districts and such with a lively traffic the Rhinoceroses may be a 

 troublesome nuisance, especially if they are numerous. But there are vast stretches 

 of land in British East Africa, as well dry' steppe as arid thornbush country, which 

 never can produce any kind of crops, and where at most nomadic tribes may be able 

 to feed their flocks. There the Rhinoceroses do no harm, and there, at least, they 

 may be allowed to remain in reasonable number. 



Although my experience about the Rhinoceros of East Africa, naturally enough, 

 is not very great I think it may be opportune to mention as examples the behaviour 

 of some of the Rhinos observed. 



The 4*ii of Febr. we were going with our safari from Luazomela to Itiolu river 

 across the open steppe. The wind blew transversely across our path from right to 

 left. A female Rhinoceros with her calf seen on our left at a long distance, more 

 than a kilometre, started to run like mad with raised tail as soon as the taint from 

 the safari reached her. The calf followed close after her. A little later the same 

 day a Rhinoceros was observed asleep under an acacia about, or rather less than 100 

 metres from our path. The safari was ordered to pass silently, but the Rhinoceros 

 heard something and rose. As its visual power was not strong enough to give any 

 information about what was going on, and it could not smell anything against the 

 wind it laid down again quietly since it had tried to stare at us for a while. Simi- 

 lar incidents of both kinds were repeated several times during the expedition. In 

 the thornbush north of Guasy Nyiri one day the grown up calf fled first and the 

 mother followed, since they had stared at us a while. 



Another day in the same country I passed a Rhinoceros with a nearly fuUgrown 

 calf at a distance of about thirty metres under the wind, and they did not perceive 

 anything. At another opportunity I had shot a big Baboon on the slopes of a 



