South Africa donates 20 black rhinos to Botswana to expand habitat

China News Service, Johannesburg, September 13th. South Africa's KZN Wildlife Service (Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife) recently donated 20 black rhinos to a protected area in Botswana to help expand their habitat.

The rhinos were transferred to a private reserve in Botswana (Deception Valley Private Reserve). The operation is part of the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project (BRREP). The project is implemented by the Kwauna Provincial Wildlife Conservation Service in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

According to the Kwana Provincial Wildlife Conservation Service, the 20 black rhinos were captured from seven wildlife reserves about eight weeks ago, including those directly managed by the agency and those previously participating in the BRREP project.

Sihle Mkhize, chief executive of the Kwana Wildlife Conservation Authority, said the agency will combine the offspring of black rhinos bred in these reserves with other individuals in its own reserves to form a genetically diverse founding population, which will then be transferred to new habitats as a whole. "Black rhinos are listed as critically endangered and projects like this are critical to the long-term survival of this species," Mkhize said.

The transfer of black rhinos to Botswana is the 18th new black rhino population established under the Black Rhino Habitat Expansion Project since its launch in 2003.

Mkhize said that moving 20 black rhinos at once, rather than moving a small number of individuals in batches over a long period of time, can create more favorable conditions for the establishment, reproduction and future spread of new populations to surrounding habitats. After black rhinos are introduced into a new protected area, relevant conservation agencies will continue to monitor them to ensure that the new population can be stably established and reproduce.

According to the relevant custody agreement, every black rhino calf born in the new protected area will be donated to the local protected area according to the agreement, or redistributed to the Kwana Provincial Wildlife Conservation Bureau.

Mkhize said this process usually takes 5 to 6 years because the newly established black rhino population needs to be given enough time to reproduce and stabilize before subsequent allocation of individuals.