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Du Toit, R., 1994. Management of black rhino in Zimbabwean conservancies: pp. 95-99

In: Penzhorn, B.L. et al. Proceedings of a symposium on rhinos as game ranch animals. Onderstepoort, Republic of South Africa, 9-10 September 1994: pp. i-iv, 1-242


  details
 
Location: Africa - Southern Africa - Zimbabwe
Subject: Translocation - Methods
Species: Black Rhino


Original text on this topic:
Diceros bicornis in Zimbabwe. For the rhinos that survived the initial phase of translocations and release, additional problems have arisen due to either too much fencing or too little fencing. In the Midlands, which received 66 (38%) of the 174 animals moved from state land over the period 1986-1989, the miombo woodlands and low-diversity vegetation along the Great Dyke have proven to have a low carrying capacity for black rhinos (a safe stocking rate is thought to be about 1 rhino per 15 km? ). This inherent ecological constraint is exacerbated by the fact that the area is comprised of a number of relatively small ranches (average size is about 7 000 ha), with a large amount of electrified boundary fencing which has restricted the dispersion of the rhinos. The post-release mortality rate in this area has remained high, depressing the net population growth to under 3% per annum, compared with growth rates of 7-10% per annum which have been achieved in the large Lowveld conservancies.
The problem of too little fencing has arisen in areas such as Chipizi (southern Matabeleland) and Gwayi (northern Matabeleland), where rhinos have dispersed off the ranches onto which they were introduced, and became scattered to the extent that their monitoring and protection were totally inadequate.

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