A personal account on the Translocation of two Black Rhinos
by Dr. Markus Borner

Two endangered Black rhinos, a mother with her calf, were airlifted in December 1997 from their home in South Africa to Tanzania's world-famous Ngorongoro Crater by a Hercules aircraft of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Airforce, as part of a multi-national effort to save the species from extinction.

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The Black Rhino has declined from a continental population of more than 100,000 in the 1960s to just 2,400 today, through the activities of poachers. In the Serengeti-Ngorongoro Ecosystem less than twenty individuals survived.

The dire plight of the rhino has led African governments to join forces to protect the dwindling herds in their last strongholds, such as the Ngorongoro Crater. Ngorongoro is a sanctuary where, as a joint effort of the Ngorongoro Authorities with the Frankfurt Zoological Society, the rhinos are guarded around the clock by dedicated anti-poaching forces as well as scientists, who monitor their behavior, feeding and genetics. An important part of the African Rhino Conservation Plan is the exchange of rhinos between national parks - in an effort to bring individual rhino populations up to a critical minimum size and to protect against inbreeding.

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The mother and calf which were flown to the Serengeti and then driven to Ngorongoro, come from South Africa's Addo National Park and are being exchanged for two other rhinos, one provided by Tanzania and the other by Germany (where it was born in Frankfurt Zoo). The Addo rhinos have an interesting history in that they themselves were originally introduced to the park from Kenya as part of a much earlier effort to restock South African rhino herds. Two descendents of those earlier migrants have made the long journey back to East Africa.

Flying in the rhinos and resettling them in Ngorongoro was for all of us from FZS here in the Serengeti quite an event. Richard, the young male rhino, that was sent to SA in exchange, escaped its enclosure near the Kilimanjaro Airport the night before the flight. Police and Army were called in, but in the end Richard returned to the enclosure peaceful as a lamb following a few carrots that were offered to him by Dr Pete Morkel, the rhinos specialist in charge of the translocation.
Numerous smaller crises followed, one of which was the onset of the elNino rains that threatened to bog down the huge Hercules aircraft on the dirt strip at Seronera in the Serengeti. High floods in the Olduvai Gorge nearly prevented the rhino convoy to cross the river. When the two newcomers were finally safely in their new home in Ngorongoro, I did notice that a had not smoked as many cigars in such a short time since the birth of my daughter 20 years ago!

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Although Ngorongoro's present rhino numbers are low, the sheer crater walls and excellent food resources within the Crater give the population a very good chance of survival. The older of the two introduced rhinos gave birth to a calf earlier in the year. Unfortunately lions killed the calf when it was only about three months old. Although we had expected that this might happen, everybody involved in the translocation was really saddened by the event.