Endangered rhinos should not be diplomatic gifts
These animals – especially black rhinos – need to be seen as a precious natural resource and not a diplomatic gift.
In June, 14 black rhinos were moved from the Nairobi and Lake Nakuru national parks to the Kenya’s Tsavo East reserve, with one seen here waiting inside a crate in Nairobi Nairobi National Park, on June 26, 2018. Kenya Wildlife Services proceeded to relocate some rhinoceroses on June 26, 2018 from Nairobi National Park to Tsavo-East National Park in an effort to repopulate habitat around the country which rhinoceros population had been decimated by poaching and harsh climatic changes. | © AFP/File | TONY KARUMBA
It’s heartbreaking that another two of the six black rhinos donated to Chad have died, bringing the total deaths to four.
The rhinos were translocated to Chad’s Zakouma National Park in May after poaching decimated the population there the past 50 years.
African Parks chief executive Peter Fearnhead says none of the animals that died were poached … which is, somehow, good to hear.
However, The Citizen wonders about the wisdom of sending black rhinos to a far off country and into habitats utterly foreign to them.
Not only are the black sub-species of rhino much more susceptible to changes in habitat – and they have a specific preference for bushy areas – they are also far more endangered than white rhinos, which are also generally more adaptable.
South Africa is still – despite the ongoing poaching plague – highly regarded as a rhino reservoir, just as it was in the ’60s, when visionary conservationists such as Ian Player helped restock many places in southern Africa where the animals had been shot out by hunters.
However, these animals – especially black rhinos – need to be seen as a precious natural resource and not a diplomatic gift.
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