Two southern white rhinos rumbled out of transport crates on Tuesday for the first time in almost 40 years, following a lengthy travel from a private ranch to Uganda’s Kidepo Valley National Park, where poachers had killed them all for their valuable horns and meat.
At the time, all of the rhinos that roamed Kidepo and the other national parks in Uganda—which were formerly home to over 700 of the massive animals—were slaughtered by poachers taking advantage of political unrest.
The species’ complete extinction in Uganda’s wild was signaled by their disappearance. The state-run Uganda Wildlife Authority is currently in charge of partly overseeing their reintroduction.
At a ceremony to commemorate the event, James Musinguzi, Executive Director of UWA, declared, “This moment marks the beginning of a new rhino story for Kidepo Valley National Park.” “Translocation of these rhinos is the first step in restoring a species that once formed part of the park’s natural heritage,” he continued.
The two rhinos were moved from the privately owned Ziwa Rhino and Wildlife Ranch in Nakasongola, approximately 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of the capital Kampala, to Kidepo, a huge grassland in isolated northeastern Uganda.
Since importing four southern white rhinos from a Kenyan game reserve in 2005, the ranch has been raising rhinos.
According to conservationists, poaching is still a significant issue in Uganda’s protected wildlife areas, and officials frequently imprison and punish people found in possession of ivory, pangolins, and other endangered species.
Because rhino horns are used in traditional medicine and are status symbols in many Asian nations, demand for them has remained high despite worldwide initiatives to crack down on poachers and smugglers.
Kidepo is especially susceptible since it is located in a region where armed cattle rustlers frequently conduct cross-border attacks. Additionally, the park is bordered by South Sudan, where the government is fighting rebels.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah