Image Alan Tunnicliffe/Shutterstock
Following years of planning and a 30-hour flight, Rwanda now has an additional five Eastern Black Rhinos thanks to the concerted breeding efforts conducted by a number of European Zoos. The Eastern Black Rhino was quite numerous in Rwanda a hundred years ago but poaching wiped them out in the 1950s and an attempt to reintroduce them in failed when they were again declared extinct in the region in 2010. Some were reintroduced from South Africa in 2017 and these will hopefully settle in and expand the gene pool into a sustainable population. The overall wild population is thought to number around 900 and there are still 94 reportedly living in Zoos and wildlife parks.
Eastern Black Rhino Image: NagelPhotography/Shutterstock
The Five comprise two males & three females, all between two and nine years old, and they were all bred at either Flamingo Land in Yorkshire, Dvur Kralove safari park in the Czech Republic or Ree Park in Denmark. They will be held in a large enclosure called a Boma for several months now to acclimatise them and ensure they are fit and capable of surviving in the wild before being released into the Akagera National Park; which has one of the more sophisticated anti-poaching programmes in the region.
As well as being a welcome addition to the existing population this will also serve to boost Rwandas Ecotourism industry, which is an important part of their economy and thanks to the security efforts that have been made largely on the back of this poaching is now extremely rare in any of Rwanda’s four main national parks.
Heres hoping they have long and fruitful lives in their new home.
