A massive 10-year mission to translocate more than 2,000 captive-bred southern white rhinos to new lives in the wild across Africa has begun.
40 animals – 16 male and 24 females – made the 700-kilometre, 14-hour journey from Rhino Rewild, site of the former Platinum Rhino farm, in South Africa’s North West province to their new home at Munywana Conservancy, a 74,000-acre private game reserve in Northern KwaZulu Natal.
“It is a massive privilege to be part of such a conservation initiative,” says Donovan Jooste, wildlife NGO African Parks’ Rhino Rewilding Project Manager, who is overseeing the 2,000+ rhinos. “The opportunity we have to de-risk a species at scale is incredibly exciting.”
Rhinos for sale
In September 2023, African Parks bought Platinum Rhino, the world’s largest private captive rhino breeding operation. The 7,800-hectare property, 100 miles south-east of Johannesburg, has since been renamed Rhino Rewild. Platinum Rhino’s former owner, South African multimillionaire John Hume, started breeding rhinos in 1992 with around 200 animals, but after years of financial difficulties and facing bankruptcy, due to the farm’s running costs, Hume put the farm up for auction in April, 2023, with a starting bid set at $10 million (£8m).
The 2,000 rhinos - more than are currently found in any single wild location in Africa - represent around 12-15% of the continent’s remaining white rhino population. With no offers received, the rhinos faced an uncertain future, with the likelihood of poaching and fragmentation.
After securing emergency funding from donors, African Parks stepped in to buy the farm, equipment, and 2,000 rhinos, along with 213 buffaloes, 11 giraffes, seven zebra, five hippos, plus sheep and goats, for an undisclosed sum. (Hume retained a stockpile of valuable rhino horn, which wasn’t included in the sale.)
- Huge “first-of-its-kind” rewilding project to bring back lost species in South Africa
- Scientists may be about to save the world's rarest rhino. Here's what they're doing
- Australian-born cheetah released in Africa for the first time ever
How to translate 2,000 rhinos
The NGO’s plan is to phase out active breeding and translocate all the rhinos and any future offspring over the next decade to protected areas across Africa, helping to secure the species’ long-term future by bolstering existing populations in established protected areas and creating new breeding strongholds in other protected areas where there are currently no rhinos.
The current target is to move around 300 rhino per year, starting with Munywana Conservancy, which has a positive track record for wildlife protection.
Rhinos were loaded into individual crates and transported by truck. “The logistics around a translocation, such as this one, are complicated,” says Jooste. "Security is also vital, ensuring that everything is done to ensure the security of not only the rhino, but all the people involved as well."
Phase one: Munywana
Southern white rhinos were previously present in the area around Munywana. Their presence in the conservancy is expected to make a significant impact.
“Rhinos perform an important ecological function in the environment as a large grazing herbivore,” says Dale Wepener, Munywana’s Warden and Conservation Manager.
"They also form an important injection of genetics to the current herd. The increased tourism value they will bring and the exposure the conservancy and the communities will get as a result of being part of this rewilding project is also very valuable.”
De-risking a species
Prior to the first translocation, which was supported by WeWild Africa (sister NGO of The Aspinall Foundation), rhino numbers at Rhino Rewild had already increased well above 2,000, due to around 20-30 births. By the end of the estimated 10-year project, the total number of rhinos relocated is expected to be in the region of 3,000, if the current reproduction rate continues.
There’s still a long way to go but spreading the animals across African locations will provide a major boost for the species. “The protection of rhino is far more than just looking after rhino; other species that occur in the protected areas will benefit from the protection,” explains Jooste. “This will lead to an increase in diversity and result in much healthier ecosystems.
“These rhino are more than just rhino, they’re an opportunity: an opportunity to de-risk a species, an opportunity to increase biodiversity, an opportunity to strengthen partnerships through conservation,” he continues.
“It’s one of the biggest and most audacious conservation efforts of modern times, working to ensure that we do the best for a species before it’s too late. We’ve learnt valuable lessons from the northern white rhino, and we now have an amazing opportunity to not be in the same position with the southern white rhino. It’s a conservation initiative that is going to save white rhino, ensuring that the species is secure. That’s our vision.”
10-year move: the next phase
After Munywana, the rest of Rhino Rewild’s rhinos will be transported to other parts of South Africa and to other African countries, with other moves expected in 2024.
African Parks currently manages 22 parks across 12 countries, including Mozambique, Rwanda, Chad and Zimbabwe, which offer plenty of potential rhino habitat. It will cost around $1500 (£1237) to move each animal within South Africa and around $5000 (£4123) per animal within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, rising to approximately $50,000 (£41,227) per animal for translocations to central Africa, which require aerial transport.
Southern white rhino were brought to the brink of extinction in the late 1800s, after populations were decimated by colonial hunters. Numbers of southern white rhino across Africa are now steadily increasing. But poaching remains a major threat, due to rhinos’ extremely valuable horns, which are used in the traditional medicine industry in Asia, despite having no medicinal properties. Around 10,000 rhinos have been killed by poachers in South Africa since 2007. In 2022, 124 rhinos were killed in Kruger National Park alone.
Translocations are seen as necessary conservation processes but there are risks involved. In 2018, six black rhinos were translocated from South Africa to Zakouma National Park in Chad but four died shortly after they were released, due to lower nutrition levels in their new home’s vegetation.
“A project such as this overall rewilding effort is not without risk,” admits Jooste. “We realise we don’t have all the answers and that there’s still room to learn a lot.
"With the experience African Parks has in translocations, as well as understanding what it takes to manage protected areas well, it’s exciting to be able to walk this path with the people that have dedicated their lives to conservation. It’s even more exciting to turn this into a massive success, learning and adapting as we move forward with our vision.”
Gallery: rhino translocation in action
You may also be interested in: