For many weeks following the death of his mother, Magnum searched for his mother, crying pathetically and revisiting all the places they once shared, but finally he attached himself to another infant rhino who had been brought in just days before, named Magnet.

Like Sam and Amboseli, these two rhinos were reared together in our Nairobi Nursery, for three years attended by their Keepers doing the rounds of the wild rhino dung-piles and urinals to become known to the resident wild community. They were inseparable, Magnet replacing the mother figure that Magnum had lost in infancy. His love for her superseded even that given to his Keepers, and by February 2001 both were independent of their Keepers, out and about in the big wide world on their own, but returning periodically to touch base back at the Trust Headquarters. However, tragedy struck when Magnet died mysteriously just some 500 metres from the Trust premises.

Magnum’s grief following the loss of his Nursery companion was painful to witness. He was dejected and listless and looked positively ill for many months, hanging around the Headquarters and off food, which, for a rhino, is most unusual.Today, Magnum is over his initial grief, and friendly with another wild adult cow and her calf, with whom he keeps company out in the Park on occasions. Being still a junior bull, he still feels insecure and is a regular returnee, spending time back in his Nursery Stockade where he has been able to become accustomed to another orphan, named Makosa. However, he finds Makosa too exuberant as a playmate, even though he is three years older. Makosa has a sharp horn, much the same size as that of Magnum, since Magnum lost his first horn against the bumper of a stationary vehicle, and has had to grow a replacement which as yet is not quite as honed as that of Makosa, and therefore less sharp! He has had several scuffles with wild bulls, returning with superficial signs of combat on his face, and on one occasion with a more serious horn wound in his rear, which fortunately missed the vitals, and healed well.