Tanzania: Struggle to bring back rhinos from South Africa

Nobody knew that Tanzania was struggling to bring back its own rhinos that were taken to South Africa, until a high placed Leon Sullivan delegation jetted in.

The United States Government has shown interest to assist Tanzania in bringing back a pack of Rhinoceroses that had been taken to a South African animal sanctuary some years ago and now the country is struggling to have the animals back. The Secretary of the US Department of Interior, Dirk Kempthorne who represented President George Bush at the Leon Sullivan Summit in Arusha said the US would help Tanzania to transport the Rhinos from south Africa.

The Secretary of Interior stated this recently when he, together with other Leon Sullivan Summit delegates visited the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority as part of the convention program. Kempthorne was responding to the issue raised by the director of wildlife, Erasmus Tarimo regarding the rare species of Rhinoceroses that were taken to South Africa by a farmer who reportedly runs a wildlife sanctuary in the country.
Apparently Tanzania is negotiating with the South African Government on how the animals could be brought back in order to boost the number of Rhinos in local National parks and game reserves. According to Tarimo, the only problem so far is how to fly the huge and heavy animals here.

?There was first the issues of buying back the Rhinoceroses at the cost of US $100,000 per animal,? said the director who was not ready to divulge how many rhinos were taken down south and how many are to be flown back. As far as he is concerned however, the contract to have the species returned here has already been signed. The question remaining was who exactly was going to foot the bill of hiring five large cargo planes required to transport the rhinos from South Africa to Tanzania. At that point, the Dirk Kempthorne, the US Secretary of the interior said his government will see how it can assist Tanzania to ferry the animals back home.

?I was speaking with President Jakaya Kikwete ???..and among other issues we discussed about how the tourism sector and wildlife conservation here can be assisted,? said Kempthorne adding that President Kikwete had expressed concern regarding the dwindling number of wildlife especially their demise brought about by mostly poachers. At the moment the Ngorongoro Conservation Area has a total of 24 rhinos all of which are equipped with GPS tracking system to protect them from poachers who hunt them for their horns.

In Asia Rhino horns are believed to have medicinal values, but elsewhere the horns are used to make varieties of expensive artifacts. It is reported that less than 50 rhinoceroses survive in Tanzania today.
The Rhinoceros consist of five species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia. Three of the five species (Javan, Sumatran and Black Rhinoceros) are critically endangered.

The Indian Rhino is endangered, with fewer than 2700 individuals left while the White Rhino is registered as Vulnerable, with roughly 14,500 remaining in the wild. The number of Black Rhinos had reportedly declined by 96 percent, worldwide, between 1970 and 1992.

In the 1980s, many dedicated conservationists and wildlife policy advocates throughout Africa realized that a serious long-term strategy program had to be developed in order to save the African Black Rhino from complete extinction. By then there were less than 100 rhinos in Tanzania, in very widely dispersed small population groups. There were very few left anywhere in Kenya, just north of Tanzania, as well as most of central Africa. There used to be 20,000 black rhinos as recently as the 1960s in Tanzania alone, but poaching for the valued rhino horn and overgrazing of habitat shrunk the area and population down to next to nothing.

In the face of the shrinking rhino populations, Tanzania, with the help of other African Parks, governments, and conservationists, planned a protected breeding program that would increase the black rhino numbers. Fifteen or more years later, Mkomazi Game Reserve Rhino Sanctuary is the result. The rhino sanctuary occupies 43 square miles of the total 2,200 square miles of the Mkomazi Game Reserve, with guards patrolling the electrified, alarmed fence around the sanctuary

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API.source.Aursha Times (Tanzania), by Glory Mhiliwa