image

epa04769538 A handout image released by Adrian Steirn shows Hope, a four-year old female rhino that survived an horrific poaching attack thanks to dramatic intervention by specialist medical staff in South Africa, recovers at Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, 26 May 2015. Hope was attacked by poachers in the first week of May 2015. The poachers darted her with tranquillising drugs and hacked off her horn, leaving her for dead. The attack is one of a series of losses suffered by Lombardi Nature Reserve in the last month. After the attack, Hope was transferred to Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape to receive further treatment. Major surgery was performed on 18 May by Dr Gerhard Steenkamp of the University of Pretoria and a veterinary team to fit the protective plate that can be seen covering the wound. Hope is being cared for by Saving the Survivors, an organisation which works specifically to save rhino that have been victims of poaching attacks. South Africa has seen three of the worst years on record for rhino poaching. In 2012 poachers killed 668 rhino building to a total of 1215 in 2014. 2015 is on track to exceed those numbers. (KEYSTONE/EPA/ADRIAN STEIRN) HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES