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Leroy Dzenga Herald Reporter
TEN white rhinos that were recently translocated from the country to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will be safe as the prerequisite steps were satisfied prior to the transfer, an official has said.
In an interview with The Herald, Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management public relations manager Mr Tinashe Farawo said Zimbabwe adhered to international guidelines in all their processes.
“This translocation is being done following acceptable practices among the African Rhino Range States and the African Rhino Conservation Plan. We are doing this in an effort to expand the regional rhino range in the SADC region. The expansion of national and regional rhino range areas is one of the goals of African rhino conservations plans,” he said.
There had been criticism from certain quarters who were expressing disquiet over the decision to move the endangered bulls to DRC, citing safety fears but Mr Farawo allayed those fears saying assessments showed the receiving country had the capacity to handle the rhinos.
“We looked at the poaching and security status of the rhinos in DRC. The Government of Zimbabwe through Zimparks is aware that DRC lost almost all its rhino population mainly because of poaching. However, for this exercise, we have done scientific assessment of the security and law enforcement status and the potential biological proliferation of the rhinos. These things were done to inform the translocation requirements. Since the white rhino population went extinct in the DRC, there are no fears of gene dilution with the rhinos that we have translocated,” said Mr Farawo.
“There are things that we do before translocation. You look at availability of habitat, availability of game water, and then you look at security, these are the things which should be done. We call these pre-requirements before translocation and we met them. Government was satisfied that the rhinos are going to be safe in DRC,” Mr Farawo said.
In 2015 Zimbabwe translocated five black rhinos to Botswana in what has been recorded as a success story in Zimbabwe’s standing as a source nation for rhinos.
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