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When Rhinos Fly
Photograph courtesy Green Renaissance/WWF
Talk about getting a lift—a tranquilized black rhinoceros is seen being transported by helicopter to a waiting vehicle in South Africa's Eastern Cape (map) last week.
Deemed critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, black rhinos have been decimated by poachers, who take the animals' horns for their purported medicinal value. (Related: "More Rhinos Hacked Apart as Horn Demand Spikes.")
The helicopter trip, which lasted less than ten minutes, was part of a new relocation technique for moving rhinos from poaching-prone areas and releasing them into more secure reserves. Airlifting in particular allows darted rhinos to be quickly removed from otherwise inaccessible terrain.
"It is just an amazing sight," project leader Jacques Flamand said of the airborne beasts. "Each one is spectacular and one wonders at it," he said via email.
"It is also so simple a concept that we are all kicking ourselves that we didn't do it long ago."
The rhino airlifts were part of WWF's Black Rhino Range Expansion Project, which has moved nearly 120 of the animals to date. In the latest effort, 19 rhinos were airlifted out of their original habitat and driven to a new location in Limpopo Province (map), about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) away.
—Christine Dell'Amore
Published November 9, 2011
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Hanging in There
Photograph courtesy Green Renaissance/WWF
The rhinos were asleep during their flights, which took the animals between about 1,600 and 3,200 feet (500 and 1000 meters) into the air.
In the past, rhinos have been transported by trucks over poor roads or airlifted in nets, WWF's Flamand said in a statement.
"This new procedure is gentler on the darted rhino, because it shortens the time it has to be kept asleep with drugs, [its] respiration is not as compromised as it can be in a net, and it avoids the need to travel in a crate over terrible tracks," he said.
(Also see "Czech Zoo Sends Four Rare White Rhinos to Kenya.")
Published November 9, 2011
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Off on the Right Foot
Photograph courtesy Green Renaissance/WWF
Once tranquilized, the rhinoceroses were suspended by their ankles for airlifting (pictured).
There are few downsides to the new technique, according to WWF's Flamand. "The animals are asleep, and the trip is short and smooth to the waiting vehicles," he said.
"We wouldn't want to do it for too long, but there is probably not even much risk up to half an hour—most of the rhinos travelled only for ten minutes."
(See "Africa Black Rhinos May Be Heading Back From Brink.")
Published November 9, 2011
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Flight to Safety
Photograph courtesy Green Renaissance/WWF
The airlifted rhinoceroses, including the animal seen above, were relocated to a secure reserve in Limpopo Province.
While the name of the reserve is being kept unknown to the public, the project partners that receive rhinos on their land are "only chosen if their security systems are of a high standard," Flamand said in a statement.
"Nowhere is safe, but some areas are more safe than others."
(See blog post: "Rhinos Continue to Die, Even as South Africa Steps Up War on Poachers.")
Published November 9, 2011
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Wakeup Call
Photograph courtesy WWF South Africa
Above, WWF's Flamand helps a tranquilized rhinoceros wake up in its new home in Limpopo Province.
"We are full of hope that this population will be as successful as the previous six [relocated rhino populations] have been," Flamand said.
"This population has everything going for it-a large block of land and, we hope, good protection from poachers and disturbance."
(See "West African Black Rhino Extinct, Group Says.")
Published November 9, 2011
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Lone Rhino
Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic
A female black rhinoceros is seen at the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in an undated picture.
Except for females with offspring, black rhinos tend to be solitary creatures. Females reproduce every two and a half to five years, and each calf starts living on its own when it's about three years old.
Thanks to conservation efforts, black rhino numbers have been steadily increasing. The last continent-wide estimate made in 2007 suggested there are more than 4,000 of the animals in the wild, according to the IUCN.
(Take an endangered-animals quiz.)
Published November 9, 2011
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