 by Dr. Markus Borner, Frankfurt Zoological Society We did fear that we had lost all rhinos in the Serengeti Park after the poaching onslaught of the 80ies. Then suddenly two female rhinos appeared again in the Moru area of Central Serengeti. Two females are not exactly a population, so we started thinking about a mate for them. We should not have worried - one of the young Ngorongoro bulls left the Ngorongoro Crater after a fight with John, the Chief Crater Ruler. Possibly following old traditional routes, the young bull called "Rajabu" appeared over one hundred Kilometres away from the Crater in Moru where he was obviously welcomed by our two lonely females. He ever since happily lived in his own paradise looking after his new found harem. After his arrival four calves were born and the Serengeti - Moru population has now seven individuals. In population terms, seven individuals are far too small for a founder population. We therefore hope to bring in more rhinos of the Diceros bicornis michaeli subspecies to form a viable core. There is a possibility that we can get more animals from Addo Park in South Africa and the Kenyan authorities have signalled that they would consider donating a few of their rhinos to the Serengeti. With three remaining rhino populations in the Serengeti ecosystem - one in Ngorongoro, one at Moru in Central Serengeti and one in the Masai Mara Game Reserve in the Northern Serengeti - there is hope that in the long run these archaic animals will be roaming again all over the Serengeti, as they did before the greed of man reduced them to just a few survivors. That will not happen overnight, the rhino breed slowly and poaching is not the only threat to their survival. But we are convinced that with enough effort, patience, ingenuity, money and hope the rhinos of Serengeti will become a conservation success story. source, www.serengeti.org |
