"Rhino Rewild": African Parks translocated 120 Southern white rhino to member reserves of the Greater Kruger Environmental Protection Foundation (GKEPF)!

African Parks, a conservation NGO that manages 22 protected areas in partnership with 12 governments across Africa, has announced that it has successfully translocated 120 Southern white rhino to member reserves of the Greater Kruger Environmental Protection Foundation (GKEPF) in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, South Africa. This translocation is the second move to happen under "Rhino Rewild", an ambitious plan to rewild 2,000 southern white rhino into secure protected areas in Africa over the next 10 years.
The rhino will not be released into the Kruger National Park itself, but into private game reserves along its western boundary, a consensus reached through collaboration, and expert inputs from Kruger National Park and South African National Parks (SANParks) counterparts. This strategic placement to private reserves bordering the Kruger National Park strengthens the rhino metapopulation and lays the groundwork for potential future collaboration as Kruger National Park continues its fight against poaching.

“The rhino will come in dehorned, which is a very effective way to decrease the poaching risk in this landscape. We’re at a point where this risk is well calculated,” says Markus Hofmeyr, wildlife vet and Director of the Rhino Recovery Fund. “This will be the first re-introduction of rhino into this landscape in about 50 years.” [src.]

The Greater Kruger Environmental Protection Foundation (GKEPF), a registered non-profit organisation, was established in 2016 in direct response to the unprecedented rise in rhino poaching in the Greater Kruger. The area is home to the world’s largest wild rhino population and comprises more than 2.5 million hectares of unfenced wilderness.