Rhino relocated from drought-stricken region

10 December, 2015

“The translocations followed on from a detailed in loco inspection of uMkhuze by senior iSimangaliso and Ezemvelo park managers‚ together with section rangers‚ as part of the ongoing drought monitoring across iSimangaliso. This was followed by an aerial survey to verify the condition of individual rhino in uMkhuze.

“Animals are rated on a scale of one to five i.e. five is optimum‚ four is good‚ three is fair‚ two is poor and one is very poor. During the survey‚ around 15 adult rhino found to be in the lower end of class 3 and below and were identified for translocation‚” park officials said.Six rhino – four female adults and two calves – have been successfully relocated from the uMkhuze section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park to the Western Shores in an emergency intervention by park rangers because of the severe drought in the region. The rhino were all dehorned before being relocated.

“While the current white rhino population in the uMkhuze section of iSimangaliso is below its ecological carrying capacity‚” explained Andrew Zaloumis‚ CEO of iSimangaliso Wetland Park‚ “and artificially supplied water points are flowing well‚ the severity of the current drought‚ coupled with extremely high ambient temperatures‚ has resulted in food shortages and severe nutritional stress for some of the animals.

“Consequently‚ it was determined that the rhino in poor condition should be relocated as an emergency measure. It was important to do this before their condition deteriorated to a point where they would have been too weak to be translocated.”

This is not the first time iSimangaliso has implemented such pro-active measures. In 2004‚ during what was then the second most severe drought in a century‚ 23 rhino were moved from iSimangaliso’s uMkhuze section to the Eastern Shores‚ where they have thrived on the coastal grasslands and adapted well to the wetter conditions.

“It is imperative to step in to save this iconic species once again in light of the severity of this drought. uMkhuze is currently experiencing one of the most severe droughts in recorded history – almost as bad as the one experienced in the 1950’s‚” said Zaloumis.

Source:http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2015/12/10/Rhino-relocated-from-drought-stricken-region