The Natal Parks Board provided 20 white rhinos as a gift from South Africa to the people of Kenya. Ten rhino will be donated to the Masai people in the Masai Mara and ten will be donated to the Lake Nakuru National Park which is run by the Kenya Wildlife Services. Each group of rhino will be accompanied to their final destination by Natal Parks Board staff and a Grindrod Airfreight specialist. `This is the largest single international donation of rhino the Natal Parks Board has ever made, and is part of the Board's striving for the improved conservation of rhino throughout the world,' said Dr Georges Hughes, Chief Executive of the Natal Parks Board. 'The donation of the rhino to Kenya has been mode possible by TOTAL South Africa and TOTAL Kenya who are paying most of the costs involved in the project. We have also had outstanding and enthusiastic support for this project from the Governments of Kenya and South Africa, he said.
An orphaned rhino calf, called `Lahilwe' (the rejected one), was obtained by Kapama from Natal Parks earlier this year to act as a companion for Ronnie, a 3 ? yr old white rhino bull, brought to the reserve from Longleat Park in England. At the end of June 1994, a poacher apparently climbed over a high game fence at Kapama lodge and shot the rhino calf and hacked off its tiny horn. Lahilwe was riddled with bullet wounds and an AK-47 cartridge was found at the scene. Ronnie went into hiding but 2 days later died, also from bullet wounds.
