A happy ending for the rhinos?

Michael - Alternate Thursdays 

Last year I wrote about the potential sale of the largest privately owned collection of rhinos in the world at auction. There were 2,000 rhinos involved as well as a large property and starting bids were set at just $10 million. There weren't any. That's very cheap just for the rhinos, or even just for the property, but the catch was protecting and continuing the farming. The owner, billionaire John Hume, wanted to sell the operation as a going concern and that involved huge running costs and basically no income. So the auction closed with no bids, and the future looked bleak for the rhinos. 

Two thousand white rhinos represents a huge and important gene pool. Hume had carefully preserved genetic diversity, but his hope that he'd one day be able to sell his stockpile of horns to recover at least some of the investment proved groundless and the monthly costs of the operation gradually escalated beyond even his ability to support. 

However, last September there was a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. African Parks, a private Johannesburg-based conservation NGO that manages twenty-two protected areas in partnership with twelve governments across Africa, agreed to purchase the property and the rhino, under a completely different model. The plan was to "rewild" the rhinos - release them into areas where they would be at home and protected. This would happen gradually over a ten year period so that progress could be monitored to ensure that the program was working. Since the rhino were never really tame, it was felt that the animals would be easy to rewild if suitable homes could be found for them. 

In consultation with all the players in the area, it's now been agreed that the ideal environment is the Greater Kruger Park area - the Kruger National Park plus a variety of private reserves that have grown up around it. (One of them is Olifants River Game Reserve where I have a share in a bungalow in the bush and where I am right now.) It's this satellite area that has been identified as the new home - over time - for the two thousand rhinos. If all goes well...

The first step to freedom
Photo: Daily Maverick

The first step was taken last month when 32 rhinos were released in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve. The full story was reported in the Daily Maverick, South Africa's best source of online news. Since they were at the scene, they can tell the story better than I can, so here is the first step in the happy ending for the rhinos. It's quite a story!