Africa Wild

9 black rhinos from SA relocate to Tanzania in a bid to protect species

2019-09-11 10:56 | AFP

Nine black rhinos from SA have arrived in the Serengeti as part of efforts to repopulate the park with the critically endangered species, Tanzanian authorities said on Tuesday.

The animals came from Thaba Tholo, a game farm in SA, and arrived on Tuesday morning, before being transported to the famous Serengeti, the ministry of natural resources said in a statement.

"We will do everything in our power to protect these animals," said deputy natural resources minister Constantine Kanyasu.

Once plentiful across sub-Saharan Africa, black rhino suffered first from hunting by European settlers, and later a poaching epidemic which largely wiped them out with only 2 475 recorded in 1993, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Thaba Tholo: http://thabatholo.co.za/

Hope they would be ok there

After decades of absence, Tanzania welcomes re-introduction of rare eastern black rhinos

2019-09-16 11:45 - By Adam Cruise

In the 1970s and 1980s, Tanzania experienced an unparalleled poaching crisis that saw their entire rhinoceros population plummet by 99%.

The eastern black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis michaeli), once common throughout East Africa, is distinguishable from black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), common in southern Africa, by having longer, leaner, and more curved horns and grooved skin. As one of the rarest large mammals on the planet, the eastern black rhinoceros is now described on the IUCN RedList as ‘Critically Endangered’. Only a few hundred individuals throughout the entire East African region now remain.

Fortunately, during the height of the poaching crisis and in an effort to safeguard the species from extinction, some rhino were translocated to safe havens outside Tanzania. A few went to zoos and breeding sanctuaries in Europe and the United States while a larger group of around sixty were sent to Addo Elephant Park in South Africa.

Back then, the hope was to preserve their genetic diversity by not inter-breeding them with the southern species. The idea was that someday, once the poaching situation had been brought under control, these rhinos would eventually be returned to Tanzania.

More than forty years later, that day finally arrived.



A New Day Dawns

In the early hours of a rainy Tuesday 10th September, Tanzania welcomed back nine eastern black rhino offspring from the sixty that were originally sent to South Africa. All nine individuals were chosen on the basis of their genetic robustness, having over a 95% of their subspecies’ hereditary composition.

The ambitious million-dollar operation saw the rhino transported in specifically custom-built crates from South Africa to Kilimanjaro on an air-conditioned 747 cargo plane. The breeding nucleus comprised of two bull calves and their mothers, three other adult cows and two large bulls. They were accompanied by a team of highly experienced veterinarians, wildlife translocators and a rhino behaviour specialist who constantly monitored their condition and well-being during the 36-hour journey.






(Photos: Adam Cruise)

On arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport, the rhinos were officially welcomed by Tanzania’s Minister of Environment, January Makamba. In a short ceremony, the minister thanked South Africa for its care of the rhino and welcomed the return of the progeny – a group that will effectively boost Tanzania’s eastern black rhino population by a full 10%.

At Kilimanjaro, the rhinos were reloaded into a smaller C130 Hercules cargo plane for the hour-long flight to a dusty airstrip in the far western Serengeti. They were flown there in two batches before being transferred by trucks to their temporary enclosures on the banks of the Grumeti River. Here, for the next two months, the rhino will be under constant supervision and acclimatized until their eventual release into the wider ecosystem.

Forging a long-term public-private-community partnership

The protracted relocation and rehabilitation project is the brainchild of the Tanzanian Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA) in partnership with the Grumeti Fund, which manages the area and plays a crucial role in the protection of the core areas of the western Serengeti.

“The success of the rhino re-establishment project,” explains Stephen Cunliffe, Executive Director of the Grumeti Fund, “has been built upon a policy of collaboration and a shared common vision between government and private stakeholders. The area has long been considered an ideal natural habitat for black rhinos and decades of planning have gone into preparing the rhinos for re-introduction back into this ecosystem.”

Part of the collaboration meant that a strong anti-poaching presence in the area had to first be established. Cunliffe says that TAWA together with the Grumeti Fund anti-poaching units have “achieved considerable success in curbing poaching that ultimately has led to dramatic increases in other wildlife population numbers.”

Thanks to these successful anti-poaching measures, the Grumeti, already a pivotal loacale in the annual wildebeest migration, has experienced a more than fourfold increase in elephant populations and tenfold increase in buffalo numbers. Lions too have made a significant comeback placing the Grumeti as one of the finest destinations in Africa to view and photograph wildlife.




(Photos: Adam Cruise)

Wesley Gold, head of the anti-poaching unit in the Serengeti, said that since 2003 Grumeti has enjoyed very low incidences of poaching. “We definitely have a handle on the situation here,” he said, “these rhinos are in the safest hands possible.” From the moment they touched down, the rhinos have been provided with round-the-clock protection by heavily armed rangers.

It is little wonder then that luxury safari companies like Singita have taken advantage of the teeming wildlife and the protected pristine landscape. Many of their guests have been eager to contribute to Grumeti Fund’s process that not only has seen the establishment of projects such as rhino repopulation but also to form close working relationships with nearby communities in their capacity building and conservation development. The return of the rhinos is designed to further enhance the tourism potential as well as community development.

“It is extremely important for us that these rhinos have come back,” says Makuru Rugatiri, who grew up in a village on the boundary of the protected area and who has been working as a Section Manager at the Grumeti Fund for the past fifteen years. “Many people here have grown up without ever seeing a rhino. Rhinos were once part of who we were as Tanzanians. Now, thanks to their return, we can once again be proud of our natural heritage".


(Photo: Adam Cruise)

Nice Adam!

17 Black rhinos from South Africa relocated to their new home in Malawi

2019-11-15 09:30

Malawi just got a big boost for their black rhino population with the successful translocation of 17 rhinos from South Africa to Liwonde National Park in Malawi.

The campaign forms part of a custodian agreement between the two countries' governments, spearheaded by WWF South Africa, African Parks, Malawi’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.

The 17 rhinos were captured in KwaZulu-Natal's iMfolozi Game Reserve and quarantined for six weeks before being flown from King Shaka International Airport in Durban to Lilongwe, with every precaution taken to ensure their well-being throughout the process. From Lilongwe, they were then driven to their new home where they were released on Tuesday and are settling in well according to African Parks.


Rhino in a boma in iMfolozi Game Reserve, South Africa. (Photo: Scott Ramsay/African Parks)


Rhino being loaded into a crate in iMfolozi Game Reserve. (Photo: (Photo: Scott Ramsay/African Parks)

Part of the move also included the relocation of two of Liwonde's black rhinos to Majete Wildlife Reserve and another one vice versa, to ensure genetic diversity.

“The translocation of black rhino between South Africa and Malawi, supplemented by translocations between Liwonde and Majete, are crucial for the health and survival of these key populations, which will now be managed as one metapopulation in Malawi," explains Craig Reid, park manager at Liwonde.

"Well-managed protected areas are a vital lifeline for countless wildlife and people. Thanks to the leadership of the Malawi Government and our partnership with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, we’ve been able to ensure that critically endangered species like black rhino can return to these places and people can benefit from these areas being conserved”.


Rhinos being transferred at King Shaka International Airport. (Photo: Scott Ramsay/African Parks)

An 'African solution'

This move forms part of the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project, which has moved 220 black rhinos since 2003, and this was the project's first international move.

Acting CEO Ntsikelelo Dlulane from Ezemvelo praised the work that can be done when African countries work together to the benefit of the whole continent.

"Black rhinos are a uniquely African species and it is therefore incumbent on the continent as a whole to take collective responsibility for their continued survival. By agreeing to this initiative Ezemvelo has taken a selfless and brave decision to support this concept of an 'African solution'."

The same sentiment was shared on the Malawian side.

“This international collaboration has provided an important opportunity for us to contribute to improving the prospects of rhinos in Africa, says Brighton Kumchedwa, director of Malawi's DNPW.

"By restoring our natural heritage, in concert with economic development, we’re providing a sustainable future for both wildlife and people in our country.”


Rhino being offloaded from the plane in Lilongwe, Malawi. (Photo: Kyle de Nobrega/African Parks)


Rhino being released from a crate in Liwonde National Park. (Photo: Kyle de Nobrega/African Parks)


Ranger monitoring sedated rhino in Liwonde. (Photo: Kyle de Nobrega/African Parks)

Rhino protection

African Parks has been working with Liwonde to strengthen their law enforcement and anti-poaching units by working through community initiatives. Extensive measures to protect the rhinos include aerial surveillance, daily ranger patrols and the integration of the most advanced technology to enable their live-time tracking.

Each animal has been fitted with a new GPS sensor device from Smart Parks, allowing teams to accurately monitor their activity and location constantly.

"With only around 5500 black rhinos remaining across their range in the wild, translocations to well-protected areas are essential in giving populations a chance for growth and survival, and allowing future generations of people to benefit from their natural heritage," says African Parks in a statement.


Black rhino after release in plains of Liwonde. (Photo: Kyle de Nobrega/African Parks)

Interesting read here: Tourism demand as a driver of poaching

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article ... -mistakes/

Food for thought!

https://api.nationalgeographic.com/dist ... oronavirus?

Botswana is evacuating black rhinos amid poaching threat
Lack of tourism during the pandemic is exacerbating an ongoing problem in Okavango Delta.
BY DINA FINE MARON
PUBLISHED MAY 1, 2020



Battling ongoing flooding, government workers in northwestern Botswana are racing to evacuate the few remaining black rhinos in the vast, swampy Okavango Delta. The effort during recent days to find and move the rhinos—which has been complicated by floodwaters that have engulfed area roads—comes after a surge of rhino killings by poachers in March that left at least six animals dead.

Botswana officials consider the evacuation essential now because they’re increasingly concerned that poachers are emboldened by the absence of safari tourists in the Okavango during the coronavirus pandemic, says Dereck Joubert, who with his wife, Beverly, leads the Botswana nonprofit Rhinos Without Borders, an organization dedicated to relocating rhinos from poaching hot spots in South Africa to areas believed to be safer in Botswana. Reduced human presence makes it easier to move around unseen, and last month, six poachers were killed by law enforcement, according to Botswana’s Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism.

“The Ministry is very conscious that poachers may try to take advantage of the lockdown and the lack of movement by tourists in remote areas to carry out their illegal activities,” the Botswana government said in a press statementon April 27, adding that it has been intensifying anti-poaching surveillance efforts in the past month. Since the country’s coronavirus lockdown began in early April, no new rhino poaching incidents have been identified.

Across Africa, there are an estimated 20,000 white rhinos but only about 4,500 black rhinos, which face the possibility of extinction. Both species live in the Okavango, but only the critically endangered black rhinos are being evacuated to safety. In 1992, Botswana’s last native black rhino fell to poachers, and since the early 2000s, a small number of the imperiled animals have been reintroduced into the area from South Africa (some of those with the Jouberts’ help). The Jouberts, who are both National Geographic explorers at large and also run a number of ecotourism lodges in the Okavango Delta through their company Great Plains Conservation, estimate that fewer than 20 black rhinos may roam the delta today.

The ongoing rhino evacuation efforts to an undisclosed location are urgent not just because workers are racing to beat poachers—they’re also trying to get the job done ahead of the full moon, Joubert says. In early May, when the moon will be full, its bright light will make it easier for poachers to find and kill rhinos without flashlights—a key clue rangers look for on their night patrols in the delta. (The full moon last month, during the first week of South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown, is believed to have been a key factor behind a spike in rhino poaching there.)

“Every time there’s a blood moon or a full moon in Africa everyone involved in conservation—particularly conservation of rhinos—shivers,” Joubert says.

Wildlife officials therefore are trying to evacuate as many of the rare animals as possible in the coming days. Rhinos Without Borders was asked to assist in the evacuation effort and is lending equipment to the operation, including trucks and veterinary supplies.

With the heavy rains and flooding, finding the rhinos—difficult in the best of times—is especially challenging. They’re being spotted from the air, and then trucks are sent in to take them out wherever roads are passable, the Jouberts say. “When the area gets a lot of rain, the roads do get very muddy, and that’s part of the romance of the place,” says John Hilton, a conservationist who has carried out bird surveys of the wetland area as the regional director for the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project. “It’s part of the reason tourists want to go there—because it is so inaccessible, and that’s part of the wonder.” In a typical year, he says, this would be peak tourism time, and people would come in via air or boat, even with the flooding and the recent rains.

The rhinos’ destination in Botswana remains confidential. “All I can say is we are taking the necessary measures to protect our rhinos,” says Cyril Taolo, acting director of Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks, who declined to provide specific information about the evacuation. “I’m not in a position to talk about any details regarding ongoing operations.”

It’s crucial to take this action now, the Jouberts emphasize. Poaching incidents in Botswana, of both elephants and rhinos, have been increasing during the past couple of years. The lucrative rhino horn trade in the region is controlled by international criminal syndicates, wildlife experts say. Last year, poachers slaughtered more than two dozen rhinos throughout Botswana, and already that number has been surpassed during the first four months of 2020, Dereck Joubert notes.

Still, he considers Botswana one of the safest places in Africa for rhinos. “While we mourn every rhino that gets killed, and every elephant for that matter, it needs to be seen in context,” he says. “The Botswana numbers are still relatively low.”