LOISABA CONSERVANCY.- Environmentalists in Kenya were celebrating after the return of rhinos to a grassland plain where they had not been seen for decades.
The successful transfer of 21 black rhinos to a new home will give them room to reproduce and could help increase the population of these critically endangered animals. It was the largest rhino transfer in Kenya’s history.
The animals came from three parks that were becoming overcrowded and were transferred to the private conservation center Loisaba, in a place where poaching wiped out rhino herds decades ago.
“There have been no rhinos here for decades, almost 50 years,” explained Loisaba Conservancy security chief Daniel Ole Yiankere. “Their numbers were greatly affected by poaching. “Now our priority is to rejuvenate this landscape and allow the rhinos to reproduce in the hope of restoring their population to its former glory.”
Safely moving rhinos is a huge challenge. The 18-day operation involved following the animals with a helicopter and then shooting them with tranquilizer darts. Then, the specimens – which weigh around a ton each – have to be loaded into the back of a truck to be transported.
The process came close to disaster when an anesthetized rhino tripped and fell into a stream. Veterinarians and guards held the animal’s head above water with a rope to prevent drowning while a drug to reverse the anesthesia took effect, and the rhino was later released.
Some came from Nairobi National Park and made a 300 km (186 mi) journey. Others came from two parks closer to Loisaba.
In general, rhinos are solitary animals and are happiest in large territories. As the population in the three home parks has risen, wildlife officials decided to relocate some in the hopes of making them feel more comfortable and increasing the chances of them reproducing.
David Ndere, a rhino expert at the Kenya Wildlife Service, said their reproduction rates drop when there are too many rhinos in one territory.
“We hope that by removing some animals, the rhino population in those areas will increase,” Ndere explained. “And then we reintroduce that founding population of at least 20 animals into new areas.”
The Loisaba Conservancy said it has dedicated about 25,000 hectares (about 96 square miles) to the newcomers, who are a mix of males and females.
Kenya has been relatively successful in recovering its black rhino population, which fell from about 20,000 in the 1970s to fewer than 300 in the mid-1980s due to poaching, according to environmentalists, stoking fears that the species could disappear completely in the country. Kenya now has about 1,000 black rhinos, the third largest population behind South Africa and Namibia.
There are only about 6,400 black rhinos in the wild in the world, all in Africa, according to the organization Save the Rhino.
Tom Silvester, CEO of the Loisaba Conservancy, said Kenya’s plan is to return the numbers to about 2,000 in the next decade.
“Once we have 2,000 individuals, we will have established a population that will give us hope that we have recovered them from extinction,” he said.
Kenyan authorities say they have relocated more than 150 rhinos in the last decade.
An attempt to move 11 specimens in 2018 ended in disaster when they all died shortly after the operation.
Ten of the animals died from stress, dehydration and malnutrition compounded by salt poisoning, as they had trouble adapting to saltier water in their new home, researchers found. The other was attacked by a lion.
Since then, new rules have been established for the capture and movement of rhinos in Kenya. Silvester said tests have been done on the quality of the water in Loisaba.
The last two remaining northern white rhinos on the planet also live in Kenya. Researchers said last month that they hope to save that subspecies by creating an embryo in a lab from eggs and sperm collected before white rhinos and transferring it to a female rhino as a surrogate mother. The pregnancy was discovered in an autopsy after that rhino died of an infection following a flood.
Source: With information from AP
