On June 6, nine female white rhinos arrived in Mozambique’s Zinave National Park following a two-day translocation.
The white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) were transferred from the Manketti Game Reserve in South Africa and join another 30 white rhinos and 22 black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) introduced to Zinave since 2022.
“[The translocation] went fantastically well,” Antony Alexander, a regional manager for the conservation nonprofit Peace Parks Foundation, which manages Zinave and organized the translocation, told Mongabay by phone.
“I’m sure they’re happy to be in the wild again.”.
The rhinos help maintain Zinave’s ecosystem as they are bulk grazers, eating a high volume of grass.
“You can imagine if you don’t have rhinos in the park, which was the situation in Zinave National Park when we first started 10 years ago.
We were at a park that had very high grass levels, which is a very large fire hazard,” said Alexander. »