31/05/2005 – The Zululand
Rhino Reserve in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal
Province is to become the second site for
endangered black rhinoceros conservation.
The WWF/Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Black Rhino
Range Expansion Project will help translocate
later this year a founder population of 17-20
black rhinos on to the newly-approved 17,000ha
area, which is made of up 12 adjoining properties.
“We started putting the idea of creating
a single biosphere incorporating the current
Zululand Rhino Reserve back in 1998. The Black
Rhino Project has been the catalyst that finally
welded it all together," said Clive Vivier,
Chairman of the Zululand Rhino Reserve and
owner of Leopard Mountain, which is one of
the properties in the consortium.
"If you look to the north or the south
of us, pristine bush has been taken up by
monoculture and cattle farming. Our wilderness
is disappearing. It’s so wrong. And what we’re
doing with the help of the project is so right.”
The aim of the Black Rhino Range Expansion
Project is to increase numbers of black rhino
(Diceros bicornis) by increasing the land
available for their conservation, thus reducing
pressure on existing reserves and providing
new territory in which they can breed.
It does this by identifying large pieces
of land with an ecological carrying capacity
of 50 or more black rhino on which a founder
population can be released. To reach this,
neighbouring landowners usually have to remove
internal fences and consolidate smaller pieces
of land into more ecologically viable blocks.
“The success of the first release of 15 black
rhino in 2004 at Mun-ya-Wana Game Reserve
has given us real confidence in this innovative
and bold approach,” said WWF’s project leader
Dr Jacques Flamand.
“Those animals have settled extremely well
into their new home. There have been no losses
through fights or accident and matings have
been observed so we’re looking forward to
the prospect of lots of calves. As the idea
of the project is to increase the growth rate
of the overall black rhino population in KwaZulu-Natal,
this is very promising.”
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has a proven track
record of successful rhino conservation and
the project is a continuation of that history.
Black rhino, which used to be the most numerous
rhinoceros species in the world, became critically
endangered following a catastrophic poaching
wave in the 1970s and 1980s which saw 96 per
cent of the population in Africa wipedout.
At the lowest point, there were just 2,500
black rhino left.
Thanks to intensive protection efforts by
organizations like Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and
WWF, that number has gradually increased to
around 3,600.
“Our responsibility is to increase numbers
of black rhino and we recognize the value
of partnerships with other sectors to help
us achieve this goal,” said Khulani Mkhize,
CEO of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.
WWF, and its conservation partner, is continuing
to look for strategic partnerships with landholders
within the species’ historic range.
"They needn’t have been traditionally
involved in conservation and we are currently
in negotiations with community landholders
whose land could become future project sites,”
added Dr Flamand.
Initially, the focus of the project is on
finding suitable sites within KwaZulu-Natal,
but once these have been saturated, the project
will look further afield.
NOTES:
• There are four black rhino subspecies:
the southern-central black rhino (Diceros
bicornis minor), the south-western black rhino
(D.b. bicornis), adapted to the arid and semi-arid
savannas of Namibia, southern Angola, western
Botswana and western South Africa, the East
African black rhino (D.b. michaeli), now found
mostly in Kenya, and the west African black
rhino (D.b. longipes), the rarest and most
endangered subspecies, now found in northern
Cameroon.
• The black rhinoceros has two horns, although
occasionally a third small posterior horn
is present. The anterior horn is longer than
the posterior, averaging 50cm long. It is
distinguished from the white rhino by a prehensile
upper lip, which it uses to feed on twigs
of woody plants and a variety of herbaceous
plants.
