The story of the white rhino,
Ceratotherium simumis truly a tragic one. Its near extinction is totally at the hands of man, whose greed for rhino horn drives a world-wide illegal trade. This rhino species is not white, but it has a wide upper lip suitable for grazing the veld. The Afrikans word for wide sounds like 'white" to Anglo-Saxon ears. African Parks, the NGO that manages parks in several African countries plans to re-wild 2,000 white rhinos. The organization needs safe places for 300 rhinos a year due to continued poaching of wild specimens. Earlier this year 120 rhinos were translocated to private reserves operating as part of the Greater Kruger Environmental Protection foundation.
When the species was identified by Europeans in 1817 by William Burchell. Hunters used increasingly lethal firearms to decimate a once abundant herbavore. A few hunters reported their grizzly experiences. In one instance eighty individuals were destroyed by two hunters in one hunting season; eight were slaughtered at a waterhole in one day. Hardly sportsman-like behavior, By the early 1900's there were fewer than 100 white rhinos remaining in the wild. In 1895 Umfalosi Reserve was established to protect what was left. The rhino population increased to 400 by the 1950's, and in 1960 there were enough white rhinos to begin relocating them to protected areas throughout their southern African range.
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| credit: Mongabay.com |
The situation took a turn for the worse by 2012. Poachers motivated by inflated prices, took a heavy toll on rhinos liiving in national parks. Rhino living on private reserves faired better due to more protection. Rhino horn is both a status symbol in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and a component of Chinese tradition medicine. It is considered a cure for cancer despite containing only keratin, the same substance as fingernails and hair. Rhino deaths began outstripping births, a sure path to extinction. A network of international criminal gangs have escalated poaching to an unsustainable level resulting in the eradication of white rhinos in most of their former range and begining to make inroads on the core population in their stronghold of South Africa. In the first nine months of this year, poachers have killed 190 rhinos in state-run protected areas in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. That’s one rhino killed every 35 hours. Private rhino owners are increasingly important to conservation efforts as the costs of protecting them in the wild increases beyond the means of poorer national governments; they conserve 50% of the extant populations in Africa.
One of those owners is John Hume who estalbished a farm in the highveld for breeding captive rhinos. His idea was to harvest horn wihtout harming the animal to which it is attached and supply a market for sustainable rhino horn. His risky business ultimately failed partly because CITIES would not grant him a license for international sales despite intense lobbying efforts. He eventually sold his Platinum Farm and rhinos to African Parks, but retains a large amount of harvested horn in storage. African Parks has now launched an effort to return Hume's two thousand rhinos to the wild in a decade. As reader can imagine, moving a full grown rhino weighing a ton or more takes a lot of effort from men and equipment. The moves are also expensive. In one day of operations, thirty-two rhinos were collected, tranquilized, boxed in moving crates and lifted by crane onto trucks for their trip to freedom. Potential recepients are evaluated based on suitable habitat, secuirty, regulatory support and financial means. Recepients fund the translocations, while African Parks donates the rhinos.
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| a vet examines a tranquilized rhino |
The question is, will they be safe in their new homes? Private reserves have a good record of protecting their residents. National parks like Kruger have a lower success rate due to their large size and scarcity of resources. African Parks aims to reduce the risk of extinction by estalishing up to 20 subpopulations across Africa with no fewer the fifty animals each. The evaluation process is in depth, but it cannot illiminate all the risks the animals will face in the wild ranging from predators like lions and hyenas to malnutrion, dehydration and insect-born diseases like trypanosomosis or sleeping sickness carried by tsetse flies. Re-wilding the captives, who were beginning to suffer from neglect as money ran out, is worth the effort and risks because they represent vital genetic material and numbers to bolster a rapidly declining wild population. White rhinos in the African wild is good thing.
[photo credit: C. Moore/African Parks]
