A MATE has been found for Thandi, the traumatised Eastern Cape rhino who somehow survived having her horn hacked off by poachers just over a year ago.

The 10-year-old white rhino bull had its horns cut off by rangers before being released into the wild at the 9000-hectare Kariega Game Reserve in an attempt to try to prevent him also ending up in the crosshairs of poachers' guns.

"We cut the horns off all of our rhino to try and make them less desirable for poachers to target," assistant reserve manager Jason Loest explained.

Standing just over a year later in the same spot where heartbroken wildlife vet Will Fowlds and traumatised rangers tried to save three mutilated rhino - while police sifted through clues of the full moon attack - Kariega general manager Alan Weyer said he still could not believe how big an impact the decision to try and save the injured rhino would have on the rest of the world.

"The global response has been huge," he admitted.

Thandi's brave fight for life - especially after rhino mate Themba drowned weeks later in a watering hole - turned her into a global icon of the fight against poaching .

While Eastern Cape has not been as hard hit by rhino poachers as other parts of the country, it has not been immune to attacks.

Since the beginning of the year, 360 rhino have been poached throughout South Africa compared to 668 the whole of last year.

Although Kariega manager Mike Fuller declined to say exactly where the bull came from, he confirmed it was in Eastern Cape - "in an area untouched bypoachers".

He said it would take about three months for the bull to get used to his new home - and make contact with Thandi and the other female in the reserve.

The arrival and release of the unnamed rhino was greeted with excitement by a handful of people.

Lying down in a crate, waiting to be unloaded from a flat bed truck, the handsome-looking bull needed a tap on the rump to realise he had arrived at his new home and slowly backed out to freedom in the Eastern Cape bushveld.