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Rhino return to the canyon - 12.05.09
The heavy gate opens with a faint rumble. Then there is silence. Suddenly a shuffling sound can be heard from beyond the doorway. Next a massive head appears between the thick wooden posts, bathed in the soft moonlight. With a huff and a puff, the head turns this side and that, edges a little further into the open, followed by an enormous body. A few more hesitating steps and the creature ambles off, disappears in the darkness of the night. |
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| It is an exalting moment for everyone who had worked hard to make this day happen, as the majestic animal regains its freedom. Because it’s been a good two centuries since a black rhino left its footprints in the soil of this area – at the Fish River Canyon, in the deep south of Namibia. At that time hunters, adventurers and explorers had hunted this animal species to extinction in southern Namibia. Four black rhino have now returned to the canyon area: two males and two females were released in Gondwana Cañon Park in April. |
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Female rhino Fiona in her compartment of the boma |
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The unpretentious words ‘returned’ and ‘released’, however, conceal a major effort in terms of energy and expenses, which had been planned down to the last detail and prepared for a long time. First of all a conclusive answer was needed to the question of whether the area in Gondwana Cañon Park is indeed a suitable habitat for rhino. The fact that it must have been suitable at some stage has been ascertained by Dr. Chris Brown, the director of the Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF), in a study (Historic distribution of large mammals in the Gondwana Canyon Park area in southern Namibia, Windhoek 2000). He evaluated reports by those European explorers, adventurers, hunters and missionaries who moved north from South Africa and made it into Namibia from about 1750. The result of the study: not only had black rhino roamed the canyon area but also giraffe, and even elephant. |
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Experts are not surprised, as the landscape and general living conditions are similar to those in Damaraland, where black rhino still share the habitat with, among others, giraffe and elephant. Following the study, Park Managers Rachel and Danie Brand scrutinized the flora: does the park area still offer the plants which are required for a rhino’s menu? Again, the answer was positive: “There are sufficient quantities of Candelabra Euphorbia (E. virosa), various Acacia species and Catophractes alexandrii, which are some of the staple foods of black rhino”, says Park Manager Rachel Brand. “The local milk bush variety (Euphorbia gregaria) is not the same as in Damaraland (E. damarana), but it is very similar. There are also plenty of Grewia shrubs – rhino gobble them up like chocolate.” |
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Almost sexually mature: rhino bull Unongo |
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Custodianship Programme of MET
As a next step Gondwana approached the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) and applied for a rhino custodianship. With its custodianship programme (see below) MET aims to reintroduce these pachyderms to all the areas where they originally used to occur and thereby further increase their total number in Namibia. While black rhino were still a highly endangered species in the late sixties (some 90 animals in the whole country), their numbers recovered remarkably (2004: about 1,100) as a result of firm action against poachers. In western Etosha National Park and in Damaraland there are now enough rhino to allow for catching and resettling some of them. |
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These animals are not sold but remain state property. Those who are interested in a custodianship have to comply with numerous stipulations which are strictly monitored by nature conservation officials on-site. Apart from sufficient quantities of food plants these include enough space, suitable watering places and effective protection against poachers. Custodians also have to cover the cost of capturing, transporting and releasing the rhinos. |
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After the MET had made sure that Gondwana Cañon Park meets all the requirements, custodianship was granted for four rhino - two males and two females. Planning and preparing for their arrival started immediately. The park management team of Rachel and Danie Brand checked the fencing around the 14.000 ha area earmarked for the rhino and set up several watering places. Under the guidance of MET experts a sturdy boma was built – to accommodate the rhino during the first week or two after their arrival. |
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Two Bulls, two Cows
The catching operation took place in February – in Damaraland and in the western parts of Etosha National Park. The animals were chosen from the air and immobilized by dart-gun from a helicopter. “We got exactly what we wished for – two males and two females, healthy, strong and just the right age”, say delighted Park Managers Rachel and Danie Brand, who joined the catching operation with their team. “Unongo is an eight-year-old bull, which means he is just about sexually mature. Koshi, the other male, is nearly four years old and no rival yet because he will reach sexual maturity only in a few years’ time. This is exactly what we wanted for breeding. The females, Fiona and Appaloosa, are also young (about 3.5 years) but will be ready to breed in a year or so.” |
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Trucks took the animals to a boma where they were kept for several weeks to enable carers to improve their condition and check them for possible health problems. Alison Kennedy-Benson, a rhino expert from the US, who can relate to rhinos in the same way a horse-whisperer does to horses, took care of the animals and calmed them. Staff from the park team had to supply freshly cut food plants on a daily basis. Finally, in late April, the rhinos were taken from western Etosha to Gondwana Cañon Park in special containers, continuously observed by vets. |
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Once sedated, ready for the big move, a transmitter was inserted into the animals’ horns. Now they can be located by radio. After a rest in Gondwana’s boma, where they were introduced to the local food plants, the rhinos were released one by one on subsequent nights in late April. In order to preclude any risk of conflict, Rachel and Danie made sure each time that no previously released rhino roamed the vicinity of the boma. |
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Koshi the Fence Lifter
“In the morning we tried to locate the rhino, which we had released the night before, by following its tracks and using the transmitter”, Danie Brand recounts. Rachel nods in agreement and adds: "The most important thing was that the animals would find water and drink. In addition to the five watering places in this area we placed halved 200 litre drums, filled with water, along the fences - just to be on the safe side." |
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After the third rhino had been released everyone got a big fright: the tracking team found the tracks of Koshi, the younger bull, in the Gondwana Cañon Park - beyond the fence of the rhino area. "Our fence is not sturdy enough to keep a rhino back", explains Danie Brand. "But MET experts had already told us that there was not much point in trying to make the fence rhino-proof. Because rhinos usually respect fences, and if they don’t, nothing will keep them back. In our case, however, we were quite surprised to find the fence undamaged." Rachel smiles: "Koshi is a really crafty one. In a small dry riverbed he lifted the fence with his horn and squeezed through underneath. In the meantime we have heard that he was in fact known for this trick in western Etosha." Sighs of relief on the second day when Koshi was finally sighted – in the vicinity of a watering place where, according to his tracks, he must have quenched his thirst. Since there are enough plants for him to eat on that side, too, and since he seems totally relaxed there is no hurry to bring him back into the separate ‘rhino area’. |
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The other three rhinos have adjusted well to their new surroundings. They eat from the trees, shrubs and euphorbia plants which grow there and regularly come to drink at certain watering places. Rachel and Danie Brand’s team is able to identify them by their footprints – the pattern of the chapped and creased sole, which is similarly unique as a human fingerprint. Once they have been spotted they can be recognized by the shape of their horns, or by their ears which were marked with an angular or round notch during capture. |
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The costs incurred by Gondwana for reintroducing rhino were substantial. But they are worth every cent, as anybody who discovers one of them in the canyon scenery will agree. In the near future guests of Gondwana Cañon Park can look forward to this experience: plans are to arrange tours, guided by a qualified rhino tracker, for tracking and observing the animals. In the wilds, almost like the explorers and adventurers of 200 years ago... |
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