Latest news with #rhinos
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
70 rhinos reared at controversial captive breeding farm set free in Rwanda
Editor's Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex's Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action. Transporting the world's second largest land mammal halfway across the second largest continent isn't exactly easy. But in a 3,400-kilometer (2,100-mile) journey that involved crates, cranes, trucks, and a Boeing 747, 70 captive bred southern white rhinos were moved from South Africa to Rwanda's Akagera National Park in early June as part of an initiative to 'rewild' them. 'Moving 70 rhinos across the continent is high-risk stuff,' Martin Rickelton, the head of translocations for African Parks, told CNN. So far, the animals appear to be doing well in their new home. 'All reports are good,' Rickelton adds. The creatures, which can weigh over 2,000 kilograms (more than 4,000 pounds), originated from a controversial breeding program started in the 1990s by property developer John Hume. Hume, who spent years lobbying for the legalization of the rhino horn trade, amassed stockpiles of horn, obtained by trimming them without harming the animals, with the aim of flooding the market to driver poachers out of business and to fund conservation efforts. But he ran out of money, and with the horn trade still banned under international law, he put the rhinos up for sale in 2023. He told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at the time that he'd spent around $150 million on the project – with surveillance being the largest cost. 'I'm left with nothing except 2,000 rhinos and 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of land.' He didn't receive a single bid. African Parks — a conservation nonprofit that manages 23 protected areas across the continent — stepped in to acquire for an undisclosed sum what was the largest rhino captive breeding operation in the world, with plans to 'rewild' the animals over 10 years. The translocation marked the first cross-continental move for African Parks' Rhino Rewild initiative. 'It's a very important milestone,' says Taylor Tench, a senior wildlife policy analyst at the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency US, who wasn't involved in the relocation. 'This is definitely a big development with respect to African Parks' efforts.' Today, there remain only about 17,000 southern white rhinos in Africa and they're classified as 'near threatened' on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List. That means the 2,000 southern white rhinos that African Parks bought, and plans to spread around the continent, comprise more than 10% of the remaining population. Although the international trade of rhino horn has been banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) since 1977, demand from consumers in Asia who see it as a status symbol, or falsely believe it can cure ailments ranging from hangovers to cancer, is still driving poaching. Poachers sometimes kill a rhino outright, or tranquilize it before cutting off its horn, sometimes hacking off a large portion of the animal's face, leaving it bleeding to death. In South Africa, where the majority of the population lives, 420 rhinos were poached in 2024. More than 100 were killed in the first three months of this year. Tench says that rhino poaching was rampant in the continent from 2012 to 2015, and a 'lot has been accomplished since then.' He added that Kenya lost no rhinos last year and that poaching has dropped significantly in Zimbabwe. Today, poaching is mostly concentrated in South Africa and Namibia, he says. To better address the issue, Tench says more government resources should be dedicated to addressing the organized criminal networks behind the poaching and international trading of rhino horn, and to increased international cooperation. Rickelton says there are a number of future relocation projects in various stages of discussion and planning. He adds that a strong framework is in place to ensure the locations that receive the rhinos provide a suitable habitat, security to keep the animals safe, and enough funding to care for them. The move to Akagera National Park took more than a year and a half of planning and approvals. And the cost of moving each rhino, including three years of monitoring and management afterwards, is about $50,000 (the move was backed by the Howard G. Buffet Foundation). The animals were first moved from the breeding program facility to the South African private game reserve Munywana Conservancy, to expose them to conditions more like Akagera. Then, the rhinos were loaded into individual steel crates, driven to an airport in Durban, South Africa, and carefully loaded by crane onto a Boeing 747. After arrival in Kigali, Rwanda, the rhinos made the final leg of their journey by road. Now, the rhinos need to adapt to their new environment. They'll be monitored by a veterinary team for several weeks. Measures like a canine unit to reduce poaching are in place in Akagera, which has reduced poaching to 'near zero' levels, according to the park. There's reason for optimism. In 2021, African Parks moved 30 rhinos to Akagera from a private game reserve in South Africa. Since, they've had 11 offspring. With the addition of 70 more rhinos, 'we've now established a genetically viable herd of rhino,' says Rickelton. He says that seeing the rhinos emerge from their crates at the end of the journey 'makes months and months of really hard work and frustration and challenges really worth it.' Rickelton adds: 'It's a story of hope in a world of not too much positive.'
CNN
12 hours ago
- Business
- CNN
70 rhinos reared at controversial South African captive breeding farm set free
Transporting the world's second largest land mammal halfway across the second largest continent isn't exactly easy. But in a 3,400-kilometer (2,100-mile) journey that involved crates, cranes, trucks, and a Boeing 747, 70 captive bred southern white rhinos were moved from South Africa to Rwanda's Akagera National Park in early June as part of an initiative to 'rewild' them. 'Moving 70 rhinos across the continent is high-risk stuff,' Martin Rickelton, the head of translocations for African Parks, told CNN. So far, the animals appear to be doing well in their new home. 'All reports are good,' Rickelton adds. The creatures, which can weigh over 2,000 kilograms (more than 4,000 pounds), originated from a controversial breeding program started in the 1990s by property developer John Hume. Hume, who spent years lobbying for the legalization of the rhino horn trade, amassed stockpiles of horn, obtained by trimming them without harming the animals, with the aim of flooding the market to driver poachers out of business and to fund conservation efforts. But he ran out of money, and with the horn trade still banned under international law, he put the rhinos up for sale in 2023. He told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at the time that he'd spent around $150 million on the project – with surveillance being the largest cost. 'I'm left with nothing except 2,000 rhinos and 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of land.' He didn't receive a single bid. African Parks — a conservation nonprofit that manages 23 protected areas across the continent — stepped in to acquire for an undisclosed sum what was the largest rhino captive breeding operation in the world, with plans to 'rewild' the animals over 10 years. The translocation marked the first cross-continental move for African Parks' Rhino Rewild initiative. 'It's a very important milestone,' says Taylor Tench, a senior wildlife policy analyst at the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency US, who wasn't involved in the relocation. 'This is definitely a big development with respect to African Parks' efforts.' Today, there remain only about 17,000 southern white rhinos in Africa and they're classified as 'near threatened' on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List. That means the 2,000 southern white rhinos that African Parks bought, and plans to spread around the continent, comprise more than 10% of the remaining population. Although the international trade of rhino horn has been banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) since 1977, demand from consumers in Asia who see it as a status symbol, or falsely believe it can cure ailments ranging from hangovers to cancer, is still driving poaching. Poachers sometimes kill a rhino outright, or tranquilize it before cutting off its horn, sometimes hacking off a large portion of the animal's face, leaving it bleeding to death. In South Africa, where the majority of the population lives, 420 rhinos were poached in 2024. More than 100 were killed in the first three months of this year. Tench says that rhino poaching was rampant in the continent from 2012 to 2015, and a 'lot has been accomplished since then.' He added that Kenya lost no rhinos last year and that poaching has dropped significantly in Zimbabwe. Today, poaching is mostly concentrated in South Africa and Namibia, he says. To better address the issue, Tench says more government resources should be dedicated to addressing the organized criminal networks behind the poaching and international trading of rhino horn, and to increased international cooperation. Rickelton says there are a number of future relocation projects in various stages of discussion and planning. He adds that a strong framework is in place to ensure the locations that receive the rhinos provide a suitable habitat, security to keep the animals safe, and enough funding to care for them. The move to Akagera National Park took more than a year and a half of planning and approvals. And the cost of moving each rhino, including three years of monitoring and management afterwards, is about $50,000 (the move was backed by the Howard G. Buffet Foundation). The animals were first moved from the breeding program facility to the South African private game reserve Munywana Conservancy, to expose them to conditions more like Akagera. Then, the rhinos were loaded into individual steel crates, driven to an airport in Durban, South Africa, and carefully loaded by crane onto a Boeing 747. After arrival in Kigali, Rwanda, the rhinos made the final leg of their journey by road. Now, the rhinos need to adapt to their new environment. They'll be monitored by a veterinary team for several weeks. Measures like a canine unit to reduce poaching are in place in Akagera, which has reduced poaching to 'near zero' levels, according to the park. There's reason for optimism. In 2021, African Parks moved 30 rhinos to Akagera from a private game reserve in South Africa. Since, they've had 11 offspring. With the addition of 70 more rhinos, 'we've now established a genetically viable herd of rhino,' says Rickelton. He says that seeing the rhinos emerge from their crates at the end of the journey 'makes months and months of really hard work and frustration and challenges really worth it.' Rickelton adds: 'It's a story of hope in a world of not too much positive.'
CNN
13 hours ago
- Business
- CNN
70 rhinos reared at controversial South African captive breeding farm set free
Transporting the world's second largest land mammal halfway across the second largest continent isn't exactly easy. But in a 3,400-kilometer (2,100-mile) journey that involved crates, cranes, trucks, and a Boeing 747, 70 captive bred southern white rhinos were moved from South Africa to Rwanda's Akagera National Park in early June as part of an initiative to 'rewild' them. 'Moving 70 rhinos across the continent is high-risk stuff,' Martin Rickelton, the head of translocations for African Parks, told CNN. So far, the animals appear to be doing well in their new home. 'All reports are good,' Rickelton adds. The creatures, which can weigh over 2,000 kilograms (more than 4,000 pounds), originated from a controversial breeding program started in the 1990s by property developer John Hume. Hume, who spent years lobbying for the legalization of the rhino horn trade, amassed stockpiles of horn, obtained by trimming them without harming the animals, with the aim of flooding the market to driver poachers out of business and to fund conservation efforts. But he ran out of money, and with the horn trade still banned under international law, he put the rhinos up for sale in 2023. He told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at the time that he'd spent around $150 million on the project – with surveillance being the largest cost. 'I'm left with nothing except 2,000 rhinos and 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of land.' He didn't receive a single bid. African Parks — a conservation nonprofit that manages 23 protected areas across the continent — stepped in to acquire for an undisclosed sum what was the largest rhino captive breeding operation in the world, with plans to 'rewild' the animals over 10 years. The translocation marked the first cross-continental move for African Parks' Rhino Rewild initiative. 'It's a very important milestone,' says Taylor Tench, a senior wildlife policy analyst at the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency US, who wasn't involved in the relocation. 'This is definitely a big development with respect to African Parks' efforts.' Today, there remain only about 17,000 southern white rhinos in Africa and they're classified as 'near threatened' on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List. That means the 2,000 southern white rhinos that African Parks bought, and plans to spread around the continent, comprise more than 10% of the remaining population. Although the international trade of rhino horn has been banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) since 1977, demand from consumers in Asia who see it as a status symbol, or falsely believe it can cure ailments ranging from hangovers to cancer, is still driving poaching. Poachers sometimes kill a rhino outright, or tranquilize it before cutting off its horn, sometimes hacking off a large portion of the animal's face, leaving it bleeding to death. In South Africa, where the majority of the population lives, 420 rhinos were poached in 2024. More than 100 were killed in the first three months of this year. Tench says that rhino poaching was rampant in the continent from 2012 to 2015, and a 'lot has been accomplished since then.' He added that Kenya lost no rhinos last year and that poaching has dropped significantly in Zimbabwe. Today, poaching is mostly concentrated in South Africa and Namibia, he says. To better address the issue, Tench says more government resources should be dedicated to addressing the organized criminal networks behind the poaching and international trading of rhino horn, and to increased international cooperation. Rickelton says there are a number of future relocation projects in various stages of discussion and planning. He adds that a strong framework is in place to ensure the locations that receive the rhinos provide a suitable habitat, security to keep the animals safe, and enough funding to care for them. The move to Akagera National Park took more than a year and a half of planning and approvals. And the cost of moving each rhino, including three years of monitoring and management afterwards, is about $50,000 (the move was backed by the Howard G. Buffet Foundation). The animals were first moved from the breeding program facility to the South African private game reserve Munywana Conservancy, to expose them to conditions more like Akagera. Then, the rhinos were loaded into individual steel crates, driven to an airport in Durban, South Africa, and carefully loaded by crane onto a Boeing 747. After arrival in Kigali, Rwanda, the rhinos made the final leg of their journey by road. Now, the rhinos need to adapt to their new environment. They'll be monitored by a veterinary team for several weeks. Measures like a canine unit to reduce poaching are in place in Akagera, which has reduced poaching to 'near zero' levels, according to the park. There's reason for optimism. In 2021, African Parks moved 30 rhinos to Akagera from a private game reserve in South Africa. Since, they've had 11 offspring. With the addition of 70 more rhinos, 'we've now established a genetically viable herd of rhino,' says Rickelton. He says that seeing the rhinos emerge from their crates at the end of the journey 'makes months and months of really hard work and frustration and challenges really worth it.' Rickelton adds: 'It's a story of hope in a world of not too much positive.'
The Independent
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
William praises rangers who protect ‘awe-inspiring' rhinos
The Prince of Wales has highlighted the 'devastating' poaching crisis threatening the survival of 'awe-inspiring' rhinos. William appears in the introduction to the fourth episode of Guardians, his series of wildlife documentary shorts highlighting the conservation work of rangers across the globe. He praises the work of rangers in South Africa's Kruger National Park for their dedication, care and courage. The 10-minute film shows teams including head ranger Cathy Dreyer working day and night to curb the threat of poaching, with caregivers Felicia and Lucas helping to raise orphaned rhino calves left behind. William says: 'Around the world rangers work steadily on the front lines of conservation. 'In South Africa's iconic Kruger National Park and surrounding areas, rangers are confronting a devastating rhino poaching crisis that threatens the survival of this awe-inspiring species. 'Amongst the teams are unsung heroes like Cathy, Felicia and Lucas – guardians who are not only taking on poachers, but also caring for the baby orphaned rhinos they leave behind. 'Their stories show hope can prevail through dedication, care and courage, even in the face of enormous challenges.' With just over 2,000 white and only around 250 black rhinos left in the Kruger National Park, it is feared the poaching crisis will lead to the extinction of the species in the next few decades if left unchallenged. The Guardians series, created by The Royal Foundation's United for Wildlife programme, is available to watch on BBC Earth's YouTube and social channels, with episodes also be screened at Adventure Cinema locations across the UK.
The Independent
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
William praises rangers who ‘take on' poachers to protect endangered rhinos
Prince William has drawn attention to the critical poaching crisis endangering rhinos, describing the situation as "devastating." In the introduction to the fourth episode of his wildlife documentary series, Guardians, the Prince of Wales commended the dedication of rangers in South Africa 's Kruger National Park. The series highlights the conservation efforts of rangers worldwide. The 10-minute film features head ranger Cathy Dreyer and her teams working to combat poaching, as well as caregivers Felicia and Lucas, who are raising orphaned rhino calves. William stated, "Around the world, rangers work steadily on the front lines of conservation. 'In South Africa's iconic Kruger National Park and surrounding areas, rangers are confronting a devastating rhino poaching crisis that threatens the survival of this awe-inspiring species. 'Amongst the teams are unsung heroes like Cathy, Felicia and Lucas – guardians who are not only taking on poachers, but also caring for the baby orphaned rhinos they leave behind. 'Their stories show hope can prevail through dedication, care and courage, even in the face of enormous challenges.' With just over 2,000 white and only around 250 black rhinos left in the Kruger National Park, it is feared the poaching crisis will lead to the extinction of the species in the next few decades if left unchallenged. The Guardians series, created by The Royal Foundation's United for Wildlife programme, is available to watch on BBC Earth's YouTube and social channels, with episodes also be screened at Adventure Cinema locations across the UK. Featuring an introduction by the Prince of Wales in each episode, the six-part series aims to raise awareness and appreciation for these often-unsung heroes. The prince recently praised Sir David Attenborough as the inspiration behind the new series. Each episode showcases rangers engaged in diverse and challenging roles, from safeguarding snow leopards in the Indian Himalayas to defending marine life in Mexico's Sea of Cortez and protecting elephants and gorillas in the Central African Republic.
