'Ridiculous' Plan From a Florida Zoo Saves Wild Rhino's Eyesight in Africa

Corralling a wild rhinoceros into a small chute to give it eyedrops might sound like a plan dreamed up after too many drinks. But if it's crazy and it works, it's not crazy. In August 2025, animal behaviourists partnering with the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society in Florida travelled to Zimbabwe to help an endangered white rhino named Thuza who was suffering from a life-threatening parasitic eye infection. 'Believe me, we didn't think of it,' said Daniel Terblanche, a security manager with Imvelo Safari Lodges. 'It was a completely ridiculous idea to us. But without trying everything we could, we would have been in trouble.' Thuza is part of the Community Rhino Conservation Initiative outside Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park — a groundbreaking programme that reintroduces southern white rhinos to communal lands for the first time in the nation's history. With so few animals in the programme, losing even one could jeopardise the entire effort. 'This rhino had bleeding eyes. He was rubbing his eyes,' said Mark Butcher, managing director of Imvelo Safari Lodges. 'I was looking at a potential where this guy was going to lose his eyesight. A blind rhino is a dead rhino.' Thad and Angi Lacinak, founders of Precision Behavior, flew to Zimbabwe with a plan based on techniques used at Palm Beach Zoo, where animals are taught to voluntarily participate in their own medical care. The approach was elegantly simple: coax Thuza into a tight space using his favourite foods, then gradually desensitise him to humans touching his face and squirting water near his eyes. 'Within about a week, we were actually putting the eyedrops strategically in his eyes while he held for it,' Angi Lacinak said. 'And by the end of two weeks, we had transferred that skill set to not only Daniel, but to the guards.' The anti-poacher scouts — people trained to protect rhinos from armed poachers — learned to administer daily medication to a wild rhino. And it worked. Southern white rhinos are listed as near threatened, with about 16,000 animals living in the wild. Poaching and habitat loss remain constant dangers. But Thuza's eyes are healing, and the skills to care for him now belong to the people who watch over him every day. 'They're consistently getting the medications into his eyes every day,' Lacinak said. 'The rhinos are just thriving now, and they feel really confident that this solved their problem.' Sometimes the most ridiculous ideas are exactly what's needed. 🦏