Baghdad Ecosystem
BLACK RHINO
I remember the first time I saw a rhino, really saw a rhino, one that was not behind bars or separated from me by a moat. It was 1997. I was in Zimbabwe at the Malilangwe Wildlife Preserve and, because they had recently received several rhinos, their rangers would track the rhinos every morning to verify their condition and location. Well, after an hour and a half of driving to see different animals (to include an elephant from about 50 feet - that's a different story), we got a call that they'd found the rhinos. So off we went, and after about half an hour we came across a ranger standing by the road. For once we were allowed to leave the vehicle - the rhinos were in the bush about a quarter mile away and there was no way to get a vehicle even close. We walked for a bit and then were told to be very very quiet. As we went through another group of trees we were told to get behind some bushes and to look out under some trees about 200 feet away. You could see horns. I had my trusty Nikon F3, a 180 mm lens and a 2x converter - i.e. the longest lens I could muster, and raised it to my eye.
After a few shots, of what I thought was too small of an animal within the picture frame, one of them decided to stand up. Suddenly my frame was too small for the rhino. It was huge. Locomotive huge. It turned and looked right at us, kind of like this picture (no, this isn't mine - mine was shot on film, which should really be scanned, but . . .). I just lowered my camera, looked in awe, and suddenly was filled with the thought that there was nothing I could do to stop that thing should it decide it didn't like us. I looked around and realized that was why there were the guys with the guns nearby (hey, just like Baghdad), just in case the two guys with dart guns missed. So I did what any reasonable photographer would do and put my camera back up to my eye and kept shooting. It didn't last long. They soon got up, turned around and walked away.
Rhino Runner
Imagine how I felt when I found out that Baghdad also has rhinos. It's a little know fact about the Baghdad Ecosystem, it's a unique biological region. It too has black rhinos, though, as in Africa, they're actually dark grey. And I can assure you that when you see one, it is every bit as huge as that first rhino I saw in Zimbabwe appeared to me. They are big, lumbering hulks. Fortunately, here in Baghdad they're not very aggressive.
Desert Rhino
There's also another species of rhino that I don't think is found anywhere else in the world (at least I couldn't find anything on Wikipedia about it), that's the desert rhino. It's a model of biological evolution, well, at least it's coloring is. The problem is that it's still pretty huge and for a species that supposedly relies on camouflage (why else the coloring?), it makes a heck of a lot of noise. Maybe the coloring is just to keep it cool because, face it, not much is going to penetrate the skin of this thing.
So in the year I've been here, I've seen a lot of rhinos and, I'll admit it, I've done that typical touristy thing and actually ridden a few of them (believe me, it's not a very comfortable ride). But you can imagine my surprise and utter delight the other day when I came across the rarest of the rare - a white rhino! And friendly enough to have my picture taken with it.
