A team of about 40 people have come together to help assist in the 5th procedure on a four-year-old rhino named Hope.
This follows a series of interventions to help with Hope's recovery after her horn and a large section of her face was hacked off by poaches in May on Lombardini game farm in the Eastern Cape.
Hope was discovered alive days after the attack and moved to Shamwari Game Reserve.
The extent of the rhino's injuries were so brutal that it exposed flesh and bone.
Wilderness Foundation medi-vet project co-ordinator, Dr William Fowlds, says on Friday doctors fitted a new version of a shield which was placed over her face to help the tissue heal.
"It's almost 3 months down the line, she does progress but it's slow. The problem being that the poachers made such a big hole in her face, they literally cut away 20% of her skull and that massive hole is difficult to fill. We really battling to attach these protective plates because there is no bone to drill the screws into and she keeps on getting them off."
Fowlds says the poachers tranquilised Hope with a drug that is tightly controlled within the veterinary and pharmaceutical professions.
"It looks to us anyway, they literally fought to cut her horn off. There's no other explanation for the degree of trauma that her face has been subjected to. She must of tried to fight them and someone with an axe or panga, or something sharp had just been swinging away at her head and created an enormous amount of damage. She was then left to die and in her case incredibly, she has managed to survive against some considerable odds." says Fowlds.
Fowlds says doctors estimate that her recovery will take up to 1 and a half years, maybe even longer.
He says doctors hope to perfect something despite not having a quarter of her face to work with.
Doctors fitting a new version of a shield to the rhino's face on Friday. Picture: Saving The Survivors
