Congo: White rhinos return
White rhinos were considered extinct in the Congo. Now conservationists have relocated 16 animals, initiating the largest rhino relocation in history.
For more than ten years, white rhinos were considered extinct in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Now, 16 specimens of the Southern subspecies have been relocated by the conservation organisation African Parks from South Africa to Garamba National Park in the northeast of Congo.
In the coming years, a total of around 70 white rhinos are to be brought to Congo. If the project succeeds, it would be the largest rhino relocation ever undertaken.
Garamba National Park, which lies on the border with South Sudan, holds particular historical significance. The national park was considered the last natural refuge for the Northern white rhino, the other subspecies of white rhino — until the animals disappeared there around 15 years ago.
Righting a wrong
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) now classifies the Northern white rhino as the rarest large mammal on earth. Only two female specimens, both born in captivity, still exist worldwide.
The Southern white rhino, which was originally native to Zambia and South Africa, still numbers around 16’000 individuals. In South Africa in particular, however, the species is also coming under increasing pressure from poaching.
High time, then, says Kester Vickery, for the Southern subspecies to be established in Congo as a replacement for the Northern white rhino. Vickery is the co-founder of the consulting firm Conservation Solutions, with which he has been assisting wildlife relocation projects for around 25 years.wildlife
By expanding the species’ range across the continent, the rhinos’ chances of survival increase once more. “When you think about it, it is very sad that a species has gone extinct in a country. We are essentially trying to right a wrong,” says Vickery.
The Northern rhinos had long been an important part of the landscape in Congo, and they played a vital role for the local Ecosystem: “The rhinoceroses kept the large grassland areas short for other species.” Various antelopes, among others, would have benefited from this.
More tourists expected again
The Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN), which is responsible for the maintenance and protection of Congolese national parks, shares this view. “The rhinoceroses are a species that historically belongs to Garamba National Park. With the return of the rhinoceroses, we hope that the number of tourists coming to the region will also increase again,” says Pascal Adrio, the deputy park manager at Garamba.
However, the reintroduction of the rhinoceroses is not cheap. “The estimated total budget for the relocation of 70 to 80 animals currently stands at approximately four million dollars,” says Martin Rickelton of the conservation organisation African Parks.
However, there is also criticism of these elaborate and costly relocation projects, as they are not always crowned with success. Most recently, two cheetahs died following a relocation from Africa to India, where the animals had been considered extinct for around 70 years. Researchers had criticised the national park as being too small for the cheetahs.
The rhinoceros project has also drawn criticism. “We must seriously ask ourselves whether such a relocation is ethically justifiable from an animal welfare perspective. The Southern White Rhinoceroses are essentially being placed as test animals into a habitat unknown to them,” says Thomas Hildebrandt, rhinoceros expert and head of the Department of Reproduction Management at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. In doing so, barely manageable risks — such as those posed by diseases — are being accepted.
Poor prospects
Hildebrandt and his research team are pursuing a different approach. The species is to be preserved through artificial reproduction using egg cells from the last two living Northern White Rhinoceroses. Should the project succeed, new problems would arise in the region. Could the Northern and Southern White Rhinoceros coexist in the future?
Hildebrandt is not convinced: "The species have developed differently through spatial separation over thousands of years." Some researchers assume that they are no longer subspecies, but two independent species. Attempts to crossbreed a so-called hybrid species from the Northern and Southern white rhinoceros had in the past led to health damage in the animals.
No good prospects for future coexistence in the wild, says Hildebrandt: "What do you do with the Southern white rhinoceroses that have already been relocated?"
Rickelton believes, however, that the artificial reproduction of the northern white rhinoceros takes too long: "If we wait 30 or 40 years, the habitat in Garamba National Park, where the Northern white rhinoceros originally lived, could change dramatically."
Without the white rhinoceroses, the savannah area becomes so overgrown that the rhinoceroses could no longer live there. Accordingly short, therefore, is the time window in which the rhinoceroses could at all be resettled in Garamba. Despite all the risks, the white rhinoceros in the Congo can only be preserved with the Southern subspecies, Rickelton is convinced.
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