The Uganda Wildlife Authority has welcomed four southern white rhinos to Kidepo Valley National Park in the north of the country.The last of Uganda’s wild rhinos was killed in the early 1980s; the translocated animals come from a breeding program set up at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary in 2005.Authorities tout the reintroduction as both strengthening ecosystem restoration and enhancing the tourism value in the host parks.
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Forty-three years after the last free-ranging rhinos were seen in the country, the Uganda Wildlife Authority has welcomed four southern white rhinos to Kidepo Valley National Park, in the country’s north, from a breeding sanctuary designed for the species’ reintroduction.
“We are glad and privileged to be taking back rhinos much as it is a different subspecies from that that used to exist, because the northern white rhino is the one which used to exist there but was hunted to extinction,” UWA executive director James Musinguzi said at the Ziwa sanctuary on Mar. 17.
According to the wildlife authority, a total of eight rhinos will be released in the park by May this year, marking the beginning of a longer process aimed at establishing a viable free-ranging rhino population in Kidepo Valley National Park.
Kidepo Valley National Park. Image by Rod Waddington via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Uganda was once home to around 300 northern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) and 400 eastern black rhinos (Diceros bicornis michaeli). But these populations were devastated by intense poaching that flourished amid the civil war that began in the late 1970s. The last of the country’s wild rhinos was killed in 1983.
In 2005, a breeding program for rhinos was established at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. Six southern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum simum) — four from Kenya and two from a sanctuary in the U.S. — were introduced the following year, and by 2023, that herd had grown to 42, according to the sanctuary’s website.
Bashir Hangi, UWA’s head of communications, told Mongabay that four rhinos have been translocated from Ziwa to Kidepo so far, with four more to follow. In January, four southern white rhinos from the sanctuary to were translocated to Ajai Wildlife Reserve in the West Nile region.
The decision to establish rhinos in these protected areas is anchored in Uganda’s National Rhino Conservation Strategy, and follows a feasibility assessment undertaken by UWA. The authority says it hopes the animals’ reintroduction will help to restore ecological integrity and contribute to national conservation objectives.
In addition to creating an additional conservation stronghold for rhinos, Hangi told Mongabay, their presence will also support the local economy through increased tourism and conservation-related opportunities.
A rhino at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, Uganda. Image courtesy of UWA.
Robert Aruho, a veterinary specialist who headed UWA’s rhino conservation program from 2013-2020, agreed that having rhinos at this national park will attract visitors and enhance its conservation value.
“Ecologically, the white rhinos are grazers, and their large food intakes keep the grasslands in check,” he told Mongabay in an interview.
He cautioned that there are also potential difficulties, including managing the rhinos’ health, possible human-wildlife conflict with surrounding communities, and the high costs of protecting the rhinos against poachers.
But, he said, rhino conservation raises the stakes and effort of park management, which in turn helps the protection of other species. “The translocation helps us not keep all eggs in one basket and create opportunities to mitigate all the above risks.”
Hangi said the wildlife authority has prepared carefully for the translocations. “This was a deliberate program with extensive planning undertaken, which included habitat preparation, enhanced security, and veterinary protocols put in place in addition to community engagement.”
Banner image: Rangers prepare to load a rhino into a crate at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, Uganda. Image courtesy of UWA.
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