Taking the photograph of a rhino

(A true story told by the man who took the photograph)

1. One day, while Clark [klɑ:k] and I with a Masai¹ conductor were walking past some very high grass,the conductor stopped and pointed. We looked where he was pointing and we saw among the high grass a great grey body. It was the back of a great rhino lying in the grass. The conductor closed his eyes to show me that the rhino was sleeping.

We walked very quietly until we were only thirty yards from the animal. Then we could see that it was a huge rhino, weighing at least² two tons. He was sleeping quietly. We could see his grey skin rising and falling with his breath,and his little pig's eyes were closed. His big flat nose, with its sharp cruel horn,was nearest to us. Each breath blew on the grass near his nose. The warm African sunlight was shining on his huge grey body.

Very quietly I got my camera ready to take the photograph. The conductor stood near me on my left side and Clark stood on my right side, with his gun in his hands. We did not kill the animals which we photographed, unless our lives were in danger, and Clark always fired his gun in the air when I took my pictures to make the animals turn away from me.

Everything was ready. I stood with my camera right in front of the rhino and I was so close that I could see his nose moving with his breath. I even saw a fly walk across his head. We waited for several minutes but the animal continued to sleep; and as I wanted to photograph him when he was moving, I took a deep breath³ and shouted "Hey!"

In a moment he was up. Although he was so huge, he moved very rapidly. For a moment he stood looking at us. What did he see? A rhino has very weak sight and he cannot see anything clearly which is more than fifteen or twenty yards away. We were nearly thirty yards away from him, so he could not see us well, but he saw something. For a few moments he stood there. Then he put his head down⁴ and rushed at us.

2. My camera was pointed at him, and as I looked through the little glass I could see the great rhino rushing towards me. As he got nearer he seemed to get bigger. When he was fifteen yards away he looked as big as a railway train. With my camera near my eye I waited to get my picture. The ground under my feet shook with the great weight of the шshing rhino. His little red eyes were cruel and angry.

When the rhino was near enough⁵ I pressed the button of my camera and took my picture. The huge animal was almost touching me.

At that moment, Clark fired his gun in order to make the animal turn away from me. But the animal paid no attention at all⁶ and came straight on. I jumped to one side, quicker than Ihad ever jumped before. As Idid so, I knew Iwas safe, but the rhino was almost on top of the Masai conductor. There was a cloud of dust and I saw the man's body thrown into the air. The rhino rushed on and away from us. We did not see him again.

Clark and Iran to the place where the Masai was lying on the ground. We were sure that he was either dead or dying. No man can be thrown up into the air by a rhino's horn and live. But just as we reached him, the conductor jumped up laughing. No, he was neither dead nor dying. The rhino's horn had not touched him, for⁷ that jump into the air had been his own.

When a rhino is rushing towards an enemy, he holds his head so that he can see. When he is close, he puts his head down so that the sharp point of his horn is in front. Therefore,just for a moment he cannot see in front of him, and in that moment the Masai jumped to one side. The rhino rushes on and usually does not stop until he is out of sight. This is how our conductor had saved himself.