NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK: THE BATTLE OF THE BULLS

Some time back it was late in the afternoon as heavy rain clouds moved over the park, I decided to drive across the park and exit at Masai gate. As I approached junction 18A, suddenly two huge shapes quickly emerged over the hill in the middle of the road. It was two huge white rhino bulls in a fearsome fight. I stopped immediately as they continued to fight at the junction. They made unusual noises that sounded a bit like a low-intensity elephant trumpet without a trunk, and also another strange squealing sound, plus a deep grumble almost belly growl noise. Time and again they seized each other up, kicking up small clouds of dust as they became enraged, before moving rapidly forward and banging heads with a massive force. Considering that the average weight of a white rhino bull is about 2300kg, the combined effect of such a heavyweight head collision is no doubt stressful on the bulls, especially after repeating the severe action so many times. It was clear to me that this fight was in the final stages now, as both bulls were now exhausted, very tired and full of blood. Eventually, they stood opposite each other gasping for breath, then one of them with a sawn-off horn turned and slowly walked off into the grass and began to graze as if nothing had happened. The other one continued to stand there in the road for some time longer, perhaps contemplating if the brute force fight was actually worth it and that after all, he did somehow emerge as the victor.

As I drove away less than 50m from the rhinos, five lions sat on the edge of the road. They had no doubt heard all the noises and came to investigate, maybe hoping that one of them would be mortally wounded and that they would get an easy dinner. As I drove away again I noted the rhino tracks in the road and measured a distance of over a kilometre that they fought in the road. Rhino bulls are known to have territory fights especially when there are females involved. Bull testosterone levels tend to elevate when fighting and as a consequence their brains process moods of aggressive behaviour that can result in “moments of madness”. Life in the wild for white rhinos is tough enough without mankind killing them for their horns, it takes about 16 long months for a single baby to be born after
mating. It must have been quite a tough and hard battle!

The park is open daily from 06h00 to 19h00.

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