Rhinos have returned to Mozambique, just over 40 years after they became extinct in the region, thanks to a Peace Parks Foundation project that transported the precious cargo 1 610km from South Africa.
The Black and White rhinos have made their new home in Zinave National Park, which spans more than 400 000ha and already has 2 300 other animals.
“Rhinos are important to the ecosystem, which is one of the reasons why we’re moving them all this distance and making all this effort to get them there,” Kester Vickery, a conservationist who is supervising the rhino translocation, told Reuters.
The Peace Parks Foundation aims to relocate over 40 rhinos in the next two years to Mozambique.
Project Manager Anthony Alexander said the group had already brought in certain predators and many elephants to the park and that it was now rhinos’ turn. “It’s very exciting now to complete the presence of historical species in the park,” he said.
This initiative is a part of a campaign to save the endangered species by relocating them to safe havens where they have a chance to increase their population.
Mozambican Environment Minister Ivete Maibaze said in a statement that the translocation would also be beneficial for the country’s emerging eco-tourism industry.
