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| Location: |
Africa - Southern Africa - South Africa |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Records |
| Species: |
Black Rhino |
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In 1971 the long-cherished hope of the National Parks Board of South Africa to re-establish the black rhinoceros in the Kruger National Park was realised with the translocation of 10 males and 10 females from Hluhluwe, supplemented in September 1972 by a gift from Rhodesia of 12 animals from the Zambez Valley. These were released in the area near Skukuza where the Natal animal had settled. Despite some losses - one cow died after a fight with hippopotamus, another was mauled by lions, one bull died after injuring a leg and two young animals died of botulism - the animals settled down well an calves have been seen regularly. In September 1977 two more cows arrive from Zululand, bringing the total to 34. This population is now well established between Skukuza and Pretoriuskop, and numbers are estimated at about 45. As both parent populations are placed by all authorities in the same subspecies, D. b. minor, there would appear to be no taxonomic objections to the mixing of the Rhodesian and Natal black rhinoceros (apart from objections to the mixing of the two gene pools).
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Black rhinoceros in Southern Africa
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