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| Location: |
Africa - Southern Africa - Botswana |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Records |
| Species: |
White Rhino |
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one hundred years later they were formally brought back from extinction in Botswana with the reintroduction of seventy-one animals to the Chobe National Park and nineteen to Moremi between the years 1974 and 1981. These animals were provided by the Natal Parks Board (saviours of the white rhino) with the Okavango Wildlife Society and the Frankfurt Zoological Society providing the necessary funding to translocate them.
The population should have increased naturally to about two hundred and forty since the reintroduction. In 1989 this population would have been worth R13,3 million to Botswana's economy (the average price paid for a live white rhino in 1989 by bidders at game auctions in South Africa was R55 400). However an aerial census conducted in September last year by a team comprising experienced personnel drawn from the Ministry of Wildlife, Conservation and Tourism, Namibia, the Natal Parks Board, the National Parks Board of South Africa, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks in Botswana and the Rhino and Elephant Foundation, revealed a total of seven white rhinos. No black were found.
After the survey, at least another three rhinos were poached, so with the proverbial clock ticking for the remaining rhino, the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks, acting on advice from previous consultations and reports from Peter Hitchins (acknowledged expert on black rhino) and Dr Anthony Hall-Martin (Director Special Services National Parks Board S.A.) approached the Natal Parks Board's crack rhino capture team.
A few days after the official 'go-ahead' from Botswana officials, two rhinos, a cow and a calf, had been located in the Chobe National Park, captured and transported seven hundred kilometres to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, established by an enthusiastic community of Botswana citizens in Serowe. A week later another two rhino followed, one wounded after a close shave with poachers. These smoothly executed operations in which the President of Botswana was actively involved, were an outstanding achievement, clearly demonstrating the potential of regional cooperation between the different state authorities and conservation organisations.
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Operation rhino rescue
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