Word: bentsen
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...Dove. The city is a sprawling network of commercial strips, trailer parks and low-slung shingle-and-stucco developments ringed by citrus groves and cotton fields. If you think this overworked stretch of real estate is an unlikely habitat for Africa's black rhinoceros, spending a morning with Calvin Bentsen will change your mind...
Four years ago, Bentsen turned 80 acres of his 2,200-acre spread into an experimental breeding ground for a pair of endangered black rhinos. Zoos are cramped. Bentsen's expansive pastures offer the South African-born animals most of the comforts of home. "This is fine rhino country," says Bentsen, as he pulls off the highway onto a sandy dirt road. Suddenly you are in south Texas as it was before the developers paved it over. In a soft morning fog, a visitor might mistake the silvery mesquite thickets and rough grass clearings for Africa's Zambezi valley...
...seems almost natural when a 2,500-lb. bull rhinoceros crashes out of the undergrowth in a full thundering charge. "Here, Macho," Bentsen calls. "How 'bout an apple for breakfast?" The massive beast puts on the brakes just short of a six-bar iron fence that separates man and animal. With a deft twist of his heavy, pointed lips, Macho plucks a slice of apple from Bentsen's hand. Bentsen reaches through the bars to scratch the leathery muzzle. Rhinos are slow-witted, almost childlike creatures that when startled tend to charge first and ask questions later. But once...
...Bentsen, 63, is a tall man made taller by a Stetson hat and black ostrich- skin boots. His face is covered with a thin wash of freckles, and his steady brown eyes size up his conversation partners from behind thick, black- framed glasses. On most days Bentsen, who is a first cousin of Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen, can be found in an air-conditioned office managing his real estate investments. He used to raise steers on his ranch until he realized that "cattle bore me to death...
What interests Calvin Bentsen is wild animals, the stranger the better. About 15 years ago, he joined the growing number of Texas ranchers who are devoting some of their pastures to exotic wildlife. Now Indian axis deer, African eland, wildebeests, Grevy's zebras and sable antelope roam Bentsen's range. To help support his wildlife habit, Bentsen sells surplus animals. His ostrich chicks fetch $7,500 a pair. Several times a year he lets hunters take trophies from the surplus animals on the ranch. Bentsen is a lifelong hunter and also a dedicated conservationist...