A century ago there were just 100 southern white rhinos Ceratotherium simum simum living in the African wild. Now there are an estimated 18,000 because of intensive conservation efforts. This achievement is one of the great conservation success stories of our time. Now, a group of 2,000 rhinos in a private collection are planned to be returned to protected habitat over ten years. African Parks, an NGO that manages reserves in 12 African countries, is preparing to translocate these rhinos from their farm in northwest South Africa to their former ranges in southern Africa. African Parks manages 20,000 hectares of protected land. About 98% of white rhinos live in four countries, South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. They form groups of females and their calves guarded by a dominant male.
Moving these 2-3 ton herbivores is a logistically complicated and expensive task. Transporting a single rhino across borders can cost more than $50,000. But the expense is worth it. White rhino play an important ecological role, often seen as a sentinel species that indicates the health of a landscape. These rhino will replace ones lost to poaching for magical medicine and recover populations where there are none. They are the only species of five that are not endangered. A Protecting rhinos allow other species to flourish. The director of Berlin's Natural History museum says the planned relocations shows the "omnipotence of man"--we can choose to live in a healthy, biodiverse world or a self-made hell. The Sixth Great Extinction has even reached "60 Minutes":
