RWANDA SET TO RECEIVE MORE RHINOS

Rhinos are a few mammal species that have become critically endangered today and in Africa, their number is countable. In a move to restore their existence in the wild, about 5 of them are yet to be translocated to Akagera National Park-Rwanda’s only savanna grassland protected area where you can find the big game. This will add to those that were previously translocated from South Africa. They are mainly the eastern black rhinos and they will be translocated from the wildlife parks in the 3 European countries. They include 3 females and 2 males from the Safari Park Dvur Kralove zoo in the Czech Republic, Flamingo Land in Britain and Ree Park Safari in Denmark is yet to meet with the Czech park for them to get familiar with each other to ease their transportation to Akagera National Park-northeastern Rwanda.

RHINO

The Head of Conservation at Rwanda Development Board ‘Eugene Mutangana’ confirmed this move that Rwanda will by June 2019 welcome the black rhinos in Akagera National Park. He further added that the board has so far finalized with the process of signing a memorandum of understanding with the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA). This will however make a strong contribution to the entire sustainability of the available rhinos at Akagera National Park. This will feature as the biggest ever single translocation of these endangered wildlife species from Europe to Africa. Upon arrival at the park, these particular mammal species will be kept off from the 19 eastern rhinos which were brought to this park from South Africa in 2017.

These creatures are expected to return to the wild in Akagera National Park where they previously got extinct due to a number of factors including the effects of the 1994 Rwanda genocide that claimed over a million people at a time. Over 900 of these subspecies still exist one earth and 90 of them are in European zoos. Discussions to re-introduce these endangered species into the wild in large scale was shared about 2 years back. That said, Rwanda being one of a few safest countries in Africa today, re-introducing them into the Akagera National Park is ideal. About 16 eastern black rhinos live in Dvur Kralove zoo and this is the largest number in Europe.

When these endangered mammal species finally settle in Rwanda, they will be allowed to interbreed. Today, rhinos still face threats like poaching by those who need to supply their products to Asian medicine market.

Rhinos lived in various area across Eurasia and Africa and unfortunately, they started becoming rare due to poaching. Over 500000 of them were believed to survive in Africa at a time especially in the 20^th century but currently, they mostly thrive outside national parks and reserves due to continued poaching and habitat loss for many years. In Asia, there are 2 species and they include Sumatran and Javan that are also critically endangered. Javan in particular was declared extinct in Vietnam around 2011 and currently a few of them are found in the Indonesian island of java. They have managed to thrive mainly due to strict conservation practices and their status changed from endangered to vulnerable. 

When you look at Africa, the southern rhinos were once thought to be non-existent and now thrive in protected sanctuaries and also classified as near threatened. The western black rhinos and the northern white ones have currently got extinct in the wild. However, 3 of the northern white rhinos are kept under 24 hour guard in Ol Pejeta conservancy area in Kenya. The black rhinos have also doubled in population for the last 2 decades from the low point of not more than 25000 individuals.