• Custodians and Stewards

2012, 2013 and 2014 has been three of the worst years on record for rhinos. Poachers in South Africa killed 668, 1004 and 1215 respectively in these three years. 2015 is on track for another record year.
As with other wild animals, managerial talk of simply “conserving the species” can miss the point, as if they are to be thought of and cared about only in the collective. But taking the basic numbers — some 65 000 Black rhino in the 1970’s versus a mere 4000 today – this is a species killed off to about 6 percent of its population in the space of half a century.
One would never know from those numbers how universally appreciated they are, the esteem in which these “charismatic mega-fauna” are held in every part of the world, at least by people who can look at a rhino and see more than rhino horn to sell or a “trophy” to mount.
The mania for rhino horn among carvers, collectors, and well-to-do buyers in Asia is especially hard to comprehend, since no work of man could begin to match the glorious beauty of a rhino. They cherish rhino horn for its “purity,” once the blood is washed off…
The White rhino, which is near threatened at 18,500 individuals, and the Black rhino, which is already critically endangered with just 4,000 individuals left in the wild, is facing an uncertain future. Although millions of rands were earmarked for anti – poaching, we still lost 1215 rhinos during 2014…
Projects to save the surviving rhino are being ardently instituted and will be using the collective force of local wildlife society, University of Pretoria and private individuals and/or companies to look after and treat the survivors of poaching incidents. As time plays a big role in acting and treating these animals as soon as possible to give them the best change for recovering and surviving.
During this planned translocation program, we also need to transport the specialized equipment e.g. ultrasound machine, generator, radiographic machine, endoscope and surgical instruments with us. This much needed work will help us to treat survivors so that these animals may have the best chance of survival.
Flying a thousand rhinos from South Africa to south Texas sounds like something out of a bad Disney movie. But if the plan, announced early in December, goes through, it could become a model for conserving animal populations under threat.

The proposal to transport 6% of the country’s rhinos to southern Texas, which has a similar climate and landscape to the animals’ native habitat, underlines just how bad poaching has become.
Last week, the environment minister revealed that a record 393 animals were killed in the Kruger National Park between January and April of this year.
Home to 80% of the planet’s rhinoceros’ population, South Africa is in the midst of a poaching epidemic. The animals’ horns fetch a high price – $65 000 for just under 1kg – in markets such as China and Vietnam, where rhino horn is an ingredient in traditional medicines. Illegal rhino killings increased by 20% in 2014, with 1215 rhinos dead.
Conservation groups, representatives of the government and individual supporters – such as landowners – in both regions are just beginning to formulate the Texas relocation plan.
Private Game farmers own roughly 5 000 of South Africa’s estimated 20 000 white and black rhinos, and have good reason to co-operate with a scheme that might preserve the population.
New breeding groups
Game farmers have long been a part of South Africa’s conservation plans. In 1900, the white rhino population in the country had shrunk to a mere 20 head, and government decided to relocate them to zoos and private game farms.
The rhinos formed new breeding groups and the resulting offspring outnumbered the rhinos killed for trophies. For a time, it worked.
But, with poaching at record levels, the longer the rhinos are on a game farm, the greater the likelihood they’ll be killed.
The proposed relocation scheme would move rhinos to individual ranches in Texas, and the relocation plan would provide South African game farmers with partial ownership of the transported rhinos’ offspring.
If the plan goes forward, the rhinos will roam free on ranch land and there will be a prohibition on hunting them or their progeny in perpetuity.
Several challenges
But the plan must overcome several challenges before it can move forward: it must get approval from the United States department of agriculture to import the animals; it must find enough ranchers in Texas who want to take the rhinos; and it must raise the funds to move the creatures, at an estimated cost of at least $50 000 a rhinoceros.

In the Texas grassland, San Antonio home to white-tailed deer and rattlesnakes, there are adequate and vast sanctuary of open spaces that could be used to protect South Africa's rhino from its biggest enemy - poachers in search of the animals' valuable horns.
As part of an ambitious project organised by animal welfare groups in the United States and South Africa – incl. other African countries to bring hundreds of orphaned baby southern white rhino to the south Texas grasslands, whose climate and geography are similar to that of South Africa.
Rhino poaching hit a record in South Africa last year, with 1 215 killed, according to South Africa's Environment Ministry.
International crime syndicates are after rhino horns, which are used in traditional Asian medicine and sell at prices higher than gold to the newly affluent in places such as Vietnam, where a belief, with no scientific basis, exists that they can cure cancer.
In January, South Africa said it had moved about 100 rhinos to neighbouring states to combat poaching. In 2015, another 200 rhinos will be moved to what Environment Minister Edna Molewa said are "strongholds" where the animals will be safer from poaching. Some have ended up in Botswana, a country that allows the shooting of poachers on sight.

Massive challenges
But what about Texas? If the plan goes forward - and there are many issues yet to be resolved - it would likely be the largest attempt outside of Africa to move rhino out of harm's way.
The South African Environment Ministry says it has yet to receive a formal request for export, but added that strict criteria under international endangered species agreements would have to be met, including zoo accreditation, standards of care and record keeping.
South Africa is home to about 20 000 rhinos, but under the Texas plan, called Project 1000, far fewer rhino would likely be approved for export to the US state. Approximately 150 have been earmarked for translocation; and funds must be raised to move the creatures, at an estimated cost of at least $50 000 a rhinoceros.
Africa has two different species of rhinos: white, which number about 20 000, and black, whose population is about 5 000, according to known habitats and population records.
There are several foundations, which have worked to preserve the African addax and the scimitar-horned Oryx, and are working closely with South African wildlife organisations to handle the logistics.

"There is a lot of red tape on both sides and there would be a need to quarantine the animals, Most of the rhino that would be transferred are orphan, baby rhino."
The challenges are formidable. Most of the rhino would be under three years old and younger animals would have to be fed milk by bottle. They are typically darted in South Africa, and would then be transported by truck and shipped as air cargo.
Rhino are not the best of travelers. Their health could be put in jeopardy by a long trip and aircraft can only move a handful at a time. But if it goes according to plan, the rhino would be housed on ranches in south or southwest Texas that can run in size to 40 000ha.
The rhino would be well guarded, with their DNA sequences stored in a database and microchips placed in their horns while they are kept under surveillance at the ranches, many equipped with helicopters to keep an eye on the animals.
If things go well in Texas and South Africa can put a lid on poaching, the Lone Star-raised rhino could eventually be returned to Africa and none would be hunted in Texas.
"It's not about hunting, it is about preserving and saving the species from certain annihilation in South Africa,".