Rhino in Crisis

In 1998, just four years after Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve was established, 28 rhino from KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa were released into the protected 200-square-mile enclave. Seventeen years later, Malilangwe contained more than 100 rhino. Thanks to military-style security, the reserve had succeeded in creating a local surplus of one of the world’s most critically endangered species.

In June 2015, five Malilangwe rhino were flown from Buffalo Range airstrip in southeastern Zimbabwe to the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Decimated by poaching, black rhino had been declared “locally extinct” in Botswana in 1992, but the commitment of the government and the newfound competence of the anti-poaching patrols, as well as the nature of the Okavango itself — a vast swamp, dotted with hundreds of tiny islands, where animals are relatively easy to protect — meant that the translocation could be undertaken with confidence.

Alas, elsewhere there is a dearth of such encouraging news. South Africa is currently home to 88 percent of the world’s rhino population, but in 2014 a total of 1,215 were killed, including more than 800 in Kruger National Park. Kruger has a 220-mile border with Mozambique, and it is proving impossible to protect its rhino from the daily incursions of heavily armed poachers. Such is the rate of attrition that the rhino is projected to be extinct in the wild by 2024.

The motivation for poaching is as strong as it is misguided. In Asia — chiefly China and Vietnam — rhino horn now sells for $35,000 a pound. Gold is currently worth approximately $17,000 a pound. A single large rhino horn can fetch up to $1 million. Rhino horn is believed to have a vast range of therapeutic qualities — as an aphrodisiac and a cure for cancer, to name but two — but as it is made entirely of keratin, prospective patients might just as well chew their fingernails instead.

For me, rhino provide a visceral link to prehistory. The common ancestor of the two African rhino species was alive around 6 million years ago. The lineages divided 1.5 million years ago, when the black rhino first appears in the fossil record. It is extraordinary to sit and watch an animal quietly browsing whose species has remained substantially unchanged for more than a million years.

Realistically, the only hope for the rhino’s survival is in heavily protected enclaves, especially in Botswana and Namibia, countries which are relatively prosperous and have effective anti-poaching enforcement. The remarkable success of Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve shows that all is not yet lost.

I recommend numerous lodges and camps operated by the outstanding company Wilderness Safaris. The Wilderness Wildlife Trust, their associated conservation organization, has purchased a number of rhino — at $50,000 each — and helped pay for them to be flown to the Moremi — at $20,000 a plane ride. For American taxpayers who wish to help, tax-deductible donations for the Wilderness Wildlife Trust can be made to Resources First Foundation, a US 501(c)(3) organization. These can be made online by visiting resourcesfirstfoundation.org. Alternatively, you may wish to consider making a contribution to the International Rhino Foundation, based in Fort Worth, Texas, at rhinos.org.