Last Friday afternoon Mawingo, the blind female black rhino on Lewa, was spotted well away from her normal area around Anna's house. She had moved some distance and travelled close to the Lewa swamp. This was surprising due to the fact that Mawingo has never moved this far from her home range before. We watch Mawingo very carefully as she has a tendency to lose her calves shortly after birth (as she has done without fail, on many previous occasions). To date we have had to step in and recover four calves and handrear them. At the moment we are looking after Tula, Elvis and Lola. Previous to this she had two calves killed by lion and leopard respectively. Mawingo is Lewa's best breeding black rhino.

When Mawingo was seen near Ian's Bridge she came across two of her children - Tula (three and a half years old) and Elvis (18 months) whom she had not seen since they were recovered after she had lost them. The rhinos approached each other and it did appear that Mawingo recognised the calves! The family was together for a couple of minutes before the children got bored and moved off. Mawingo spent some time smelling the footprints and area before returning home herself. It will be interesting to see if Mawingo turns up so far out of her range again to see her children.

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