More black rhinos are off to greener pastures as Zimbabwe airlifts them to Botswana to protect them from poachers.
Last week, five black rhinos donated by the Malilangwe Trust were airlifted from Chiredzi in southern Zimbabwe to the Okavango Delta under a intergovernmental agreement to boost conservation.
The rhinos were “carefully selected to make sure there is no skewing in terms of sex ratios or age of our local population, said Mark Saunders, executive director of Malilangwe Trust, to News24.
An additional three rhinos were supposed to be airlifted early this week.
Officials from Zimbabwe had previously checked out the area the rhinos will be living with and believe they will have better protection there.
Indeed, it seems that Botswana is currently one of the best protected places in Africa for rhinos.
In April, ten rhinos were airlifted from South Africa to Botswana as part of the Rhinos Without Borders project.
Poaching in Zimbabwe has seen a sharp decline but there is still a long way to go.
Five rhinos have already been reported killed by poachers in 2015, but that’s a much lower number than the peak of 84 killed in 2008.
Zimbabwe currently has 500 black rhinos and 300 white rhinos remaining.
Read more: News24
