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.
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.
In January, four southern white rhinos from the sanctuary to were translocated to Ajai Wildlife Reserve in the West Nile region.
“Ecologically, the white rhinos are grazers, and their large food intakes keep the grasslands in check,” he told Mongabay in an interview. »