For the first time in more than four decades, rhinos have returned to Uganda’s Kidepo Valley National Park, where poachers once wiped them out for their horns and meat.
On Tuesday, two southern white rhinos became the first of eight animals intended to re-establish a population in the park. The last rhino there was killed in 1983, the Uganda Wildlife Authority, which is responsible for the relocation, said.
During that period of turmoil, hunters slaughtered every rhino in Kidepo and across Uganda’s other national parks, which had once supported around 700 of the massive animals, the Reuters news agency reports.
Their loss resulted in the species’ complete extinction in the wild in Uganda.
“This moment marks the beginning of a new rhino story for Kidepo Valley National Park,” UWA’s executive director James Musinguzi is quoted by Reuters as saying.
“Translocation of these rhinos is the first step in restoring a species that once formed part of the park’s natural heritage,” he added.
Musinguzi said the initiative is guided by a study that looked at habitat suitability, ecological needs and security conditions and found that Kidepo was one of the best sites for successfully reintroducing the species.
The UWA said a secure rhino sanctuary outfitted with perimeter fencing, access roads, firebreaks, ranger facilities, water systems and monitoring technology was in place to ensure the animals are effectively protected and managed.
The two rhinos were moved to Kidepo, a vast expanse of savannah in the remote north-east of the country, from a privately owned ranch in Nakasongola, about 100 km (62 miles) north of the capital, Kampala.
The ranch has been breeding rhinos since 2005, when it imported four southern white rhinos from a Kenyan game reserve.
Poaching is still a challenge in Uganda, where authorities have arrested and prosecuted individuals found with ivory, pangolins and other endangered species, conservationists report.
The illicit rhino horn market remains lucrative fuelled by their use in traditional medicine and their value as status symbols in several Asian countries.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies the southern white rhino as “near threatened” saying their population is decreasing. A survey from 2020 said there were just over 10,000 of the huge mammals in existence.
