As poaching surges, Africa’s endangered black rhinos are moved 1,000 miles
A tranquilizer dart had pierced his rough, leathery skin above the ear. Steps away, his sedated mother had collapsed. Paulina’s hind foot was lassoed with a rope and she was blindfolded. A group of men and women tugged on the rope and rocked her large, round frame, trying to get her up and into a metal crate.Then, they plunged a cattle prod under Paulina’s bottom. The crackle of electricity flowed through her body. She staggered up, then fell again.
“They can’t really look after the rhino here, no matter the resources they have,” said Werner Myburgh, the head of the Peace Parks Foundation, a conservation nonprofit, referring to the reserve where Paulina, Cecil and dozens of black and white rhinos have lived for years. “So you have to move the rhinos, or else you will lose all of them eventually.”Cecil and his mother Paulina, endangered black rhinos, sense something is afoot inside their compound, known as a boma, in Lephalale, South Africa.
“We are pushing the limits,” said Kester Vickery, the main architect of the journey. “Our biggest challenge is fighting time.”Earlier that morning, in the cold predawn hours, the rhinos were inside their compounds, known as bomas. Some of the animals were restless, running and snorting, sensing something was afoot. Cecil stood next to Paulina, following her wherever she went.
Today, roughly 2,000 black rhinos and 15,000 white rhinos are left in South Africa. Larger parks have invested in electronic tracking surveillance and armies of anti-poaching rangers, and have even started sawing off rhino horns to deter poachers. Exxaro decided on a different strategy, donating and moving all 41 of its rhinos — 30 white and 11 black ones — to Zinave, where they felt the animals would be safer.
Conservationists move a tranquilized black rhino into the crate that will be her home for the next 40 hours. Conservationists remove Paulina’s horn so the endangered black rhino doesn’t harm herself inside her crates during the long journey to Mozambique. Only four black rhinos and 10 white rhinos remained in the park. In a few months, they too are scheduled to be taken to Mozambique.
Four hours later, as darkness set in, the truck broke down. They were still roughly 25 miles outside the city of Mbombela. Halfway into the journey, two tires blew out at the same time. The driver scrambled to fix them. While they waited, Fuls and his team fed the rhinos some water and high-protein camel thorn tree pods to “give them the last bit of energy” to reach the park.
“The black rhino plays their own unique role getting the whole ecosystem functioning properly again,” said Bernard van Lente, the park’s project manager. “We’re stimulating diversity and so plants grow more vigorously, which is a key element to prevent climate change.” In Zinave, the rhinos will roam in a fenced-in sanctuary with electronic surveillance, allowing for better monitoring. A ninety-strong anti-poaching unit, armed with semiautomatic weapons, patrols the area around-the-clock by foot, truck, and helicopter.
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