14 black rhino shifted to new range expansion area

AT a time when the word “rhino” has become synonymous with bloodshed‚ bullets and a poaching rate of three animals a day‚ it is not often that there is some good news.

Last week‚ 14 black rhinos from KwaZulu-Natal were shifted out of the province to help multiply one of Africa’s most endangered wildlife species.

The latest move – to a new private reserve in the north of the country – is part of a conservation project that began 14 years ago‚ to spread out this increasingly vulnerable and iconic species from state land into private and community-owned reserves.

For security reasons‚ the location of the new black rhino reserve has not been disclosed.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature says the aim is to provide more living and breeding space‚ allowing the threatened animals to multiply as rapidly as possible.

Since 2003‚ when the range expansion project began‚ 11 small groups of black rhino have been shifted from Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife and Eastern Cape provincial parks.

These small founder populations have grown significantly‚ to such an extent that several of the animals moved last week were sourced from private or community parks.

Rhino range expansion project leader Dr Jacques Flamand said: “This is good news because it shows that the plan to increase black rhino numbers is working‚”

Nevertheless‚ there are only about 5 000 black rhinos left in Africa‚ with 2 000 of them in South Africa.

Historically‚ black rhinos were once the most numerous of the world’s rhino species – numbering about 850 000 across the continent.

Rhino expert Dr Richard Emslie said the black species saw a dramatic 98% collapse because of large-scale poaching between 1960 and 1995.

Today‚ just four countries (South Africa‚ Namibia‚ Zimbabwe and Kenya) protect almost 96% of Africa’s remaining black rhino population.

“Black rhino‚ and rhino generally‚ are under huge pressure. We really have to fight for them,” Flamand said.

But there had been steady progress over the last decade‚ with nearly 10% of the country’s black rhino population now living in the newly established range expansion areas. – TimesLIVE