A few days after the official 'go-ahead' from Botswana officials, two rhinos, a cow and a calf, had been located in the Chobe National Park, captured and transported seven hundred kilometres to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, established by an enthusiastic community of Botswana citizens in Serowe. A week later another two rhino followed, one wounded after a close shave with poachers. These smoothly executed operations in which the President of Botswana was actively involved, were an outstanding achievement, clearly demonstrating the potential of regional cooperation between the different state authorities and conservation organisations.
Men have been, and are still killing rhino and each other in a tragic mockery of the CITES ban as the ?Rhino War' in Zimbabwe rages on with one rhino being killed every week in 1992 and possibly twice as many poachers losing their lives. In June 1992, the standing committee of CITES, recognised ?the critical problem of rhino conservation despite the almost 20 years of Appendix 1 listing', and resolved to make trade related aspects of rhinoceros a project of special interest leading up to the next Conference of the Parties, scheduled for 1994. In a desperate effort to create some reprieve from the poachers' onslaught new legislation in Zimbabwe came into effect last year providing for every black rhino in the country to be dehorned. A massive dehorning programme is now in progress, but fewer rhinos have been located than expected and some fear the effort is too late. There has been an upsurge in poaching in the last twenty-four months. This is possibly because speculators in the Far East are stockpiling horn in anticipation of the commodity becoming unobtainable as wild rhino near extinction, which would rocket rhino horn prices to astronomical new levels: a desperate situation which requires urgent action. TRAFFIC, a trade monitoring group supported by the World Wildlife Fund, has urged the intemational community ?to move beyond the narrow scope of orthodox conservation strategies and con- sider the full spectrum of available options to enhance rhino conservation throughout the world.'
one hundred years later they were formally brought back from extinction in Botswana with the reintroduction of seventy-one animals to the Chobe National Park and nineteen to Moremi between the years 1974 and 1981. These animals were provided by the Natal Parks Board (saviours of the white rhino) with the Okavango Wildlife Society and the Frankfurt Zoological Society providing the necessary funding to translocate them. The population should have increased naturally to about two hundred and forty since the reintroduction. In 1989 this population would have been worth R13,3 million to Botswana's economy (the average price paid for a live white rhino in 1989 by bidders at game auctions in South Africa was R55 400). However an aerial census conducted in September last year by a team comprising experienced personnel drawn from the Ministry of Wildlife, Conservation and Tourism, Namibia, the Natal Parks Board, the National Parks Board of South Africa, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks in Botswana and the Rhino and Elephant Foundation, revealed a total of seven white rhinos. No black were found. After the survey, at least another three rhinos were poached, so with the proverbial clock ticking for the remaining rhino, the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks, acting on advice from previous consultations and reports from Peter Hitchins (acknowledged expert on black rhino) and Dr Anthony Hall-Martin (Director Special Services National Parks Board S.A.) approached the Natal Parks Board's crack rhino capture team. A few days after the official 'go-ahead' from Botswana officials, two rhinos, a cow and a calf, had been located in the Chobe National Park, captured and transported seven hundred kilometres to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, established by an enthusiastic community of Botswana citizens in Serowe. A week later another two rhino followed, one wounded after a close shave with poachers. These smoothly executed operations in which the President of Botswana was actively involved, were an outstanding achievement, clearly demonstrating the potential of regional cooperation between the different state authorities and conservation organisations.
Last year a record price of R2,3 million was paid for five black rhino, sold as a single breeding unit, to Dale Parker for his private reserve, Lapalala Wilderness, in the Waterberg of the northwestern Transvaal. In buying the five animals, it was a repeat performance for Mr Parker who, two years ago, bought the first group of black rhino ever offered by the Natal Parks Board for sale to private landowners. He paid R2,2 million then, a figure considered astonishing at the time. When a businessman makes a heavy fmancial investment in wild animal breeding stock, he will obviously have a very strong personal interest in managing those animals properly.
one hundred years later they were formally brought back from extinction in Botswana with the reintroduction of seventy-one animals to the Chobe National Park and nineteen to Moremi between the years 1974 and 1981. These animals were provided by the Natal Parks Board (saviours of the white rhino) with the Okavango Wildlife Society and the Frankfurt Zoological Society providing the necessary funding to translocate them.
One such concept is the
Last year a record price of R2,3 million was paid for five black rhino, sold as a single breeding unit, to Dale Parker for his private reserve, Lapalala Wilderness, in the Waterberg of the north- western Transvaal. In buying the five animals, it was a repeat performance for Mr Parker who, two years ago, bought the first group of black rhino ever offered by the Natal Parks Board for sale to private landowners. He paid R2,2 million then, a figure considered astonishing at the time. When a businessman makes a heavy fmancial investment in wild animal breeding stock, he will obviously have a very strong personal interest in managing those animals properly.
