Akagera National Park in Rwanda is set to welcome 70 southern white rhinos from South Africa later this month, marking the country’s largest-ever rhino translocation. The initiative, involving a 3,400-kilometre journey, forms part of a wider conservation effort to establish a secure breeding population and strengthen Rwanda’s growing reputation as a key safari destination.
Rwanda’s biggest national park announced it will be receiving 70 white rhinos from South Africa later this month, in the country’s largest such transfer ever.Once plentiful across sub-Saharan Africa, white rhino suffered first from hunting by European settlers, and later a poaching epidemic that largely wiped them out. According to the International Rhino Foundation (IRF), rhino poaching in Africa rose by four percent from 2022 to 2023, with at least 586 poached in 2023.
.
DION GEORGE, Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries – South Africa
The southern white rhino, one of two subspecies, is now listed as « near threatened », with about 17,000 individuals remaining, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).Scientists are attempting to save the species from extinction by harvesting eggs from the younger of the two animals, Fatu, and using sperm from two deceased males to create embryos in an unprecedented breeding programme, the subspecies’ last chance at survival.
.
DION GEORGE, Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries – South Africa
Rwanda, which is positioning itself as a top safari destination, received 30 white rhinos in 2021 in the same park.The population of white rhino is on the rise in South Africa despite poaching, according to IRF.
