The Imire Sable

While visiting Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservation in Zimbabwe, we came across these beauties.

Sables, of the antelope family, are becoming rarer and rarer.

They are absolutely beautiful to watch, very regal.

Why, hello, sable!

A zebra at Imire.

Zimbabwe is covered with just so many stunningly beautiful trees.

For some reason, our ride at Imire struck me as particularly hilarious.

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The Imire Elephant: Matriarch of the African Buffalos

Some of the elephants at the Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservation in Zimbabwe.

One of the elephants eating.  It's amazing how powerful they are, taking down trees.

Hi, elephant tush!

A baby elephant.  Still my favorite of all the animals, how can you not just love a baby elephant?

Imire has an elephant who is rather famous for her 'identity crisis.'

Nzou is the matriarch of this herd of African Buffalo.  That's right, she's the head of a herd of African Buffalo.

When Nzou first arrived at Imire, she was placed with a bull elephant within the only large herd Imire a had at the time---a buffalo herd.  By the time the bull elephant died, Nzou had immersed herself so completely within the buffalo herd that she became distressed when Imire tried to move her to the elephant herd they had obtained.  The buffalo also became visibly unsettled by her absence.

When I visited, fourteen male African Buffalo had challenged Nzou for head of the herd over the past 30 years---she won every time.

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The Imire Giraffe

The giraffe at the Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservation in Zimbabwe.

Watching a giraffe eat is just so cool!

Isn't she beautiful?

Giraffes always make me think of my wonderful niece who loves, loves, loves giraffes!

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The Imire Rhinos

One of the rhinos at the Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservation in Zimbabwe.

Rhinos are heavily poached throughout Africa, especially in southern Africa, for their horns.

Some Asian cultures believe the horns have healing and aphrodisiac powers (they don't.) which has sky rocketed

the black market price for the horns and lead to many rhinos being killed unnecessarily.

One way to try and avoid poaching is to file down their horns to make them less of a target as Imire as done.

This rhino's mother was killed by poachers when he was a month old.  He survived by hiding under his mother's body.

National Geographic did a documentary on him as he grew up in the Imire garden and became friends with the warthogs.
It's called something like The Rhino in the Garden... 

For more information on efforts to save rhinos.

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