Najin, 20, a female Northern White Rhinoceros that was shipped to Kenya from the Czech Republic, walks inside its pen at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy near Nanyuki town. Reuters
Resting under the shade of an acacia tree in Kenya, nine-year old Fatu seems perfectly at home in the hot and grassy enclosure that has been her dwelling for the last month.
The 1,800 kilo female rhino is one of four northern white rhinos — the only ones now in a position to breed — sent to Kenya from a zoo in the Czech Republic with one sole purpose: to make babies.
Only eight of the endangered subspecies remain, the other four being also in captivity, say Ol Pejeta conservationists.
New food
So the onus lies on the massive shoulders of Fatu, her 20-year-old mother Najin, 38-year-old grandfather Sudan and another male Suni, 36, to save the race.
Having lived most of their lives in the Czech republic, the four will need time to adapt to their new surroundings at Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy that is now their home.
“Everyone of us wants one of those animals to be pregnant as quickly as possible but we’ve got to be realistic about it. We need to introduce them, we need to get them out in the right environment, the right space to start breeding,” said Batian Craig, security manager at Ol Pejeta.
Opponents of the move say that the animals are at risk because they have spent all of their lives in very different conditions from those they are experiencing now in Africa.
The animals must be introduced to virtually everything, including electric fences and new food.
In their Czech zoo, the four lived on a diet of carrots, brown bread, apples and hay, but in Kenya they must learn to graze in grassy enclosures.
Dana Holechkova, director of the Dvur Kralove zoo that repatriated the animals said the four were enjoying discovering their new home.
“They look to me like they are more happy here,” she said.
“They are having mud baths, eating growing grass, it’s something they had never had before. That alone is a major achievement, bringing them through those steps. Next step is putting them in the wild and that will be the challenge, but the few changes we have seen are hugely positive.”
The plan is to move the rhinos to more spacious enclosures to give them a sense of the wilderness, although they will remain within the protected area of the conservancy.
White rhinos are the largest land mammals after elephants and typically live in herds of up to 14 animals. Their numbers have slumped from about 500 in the 1970s mainly due to poaching.
The endangered white northern rhinos are native to Africa, north of the equator.
Ol Pejeta has several southern white rhinos but they will not be allowed to mate with Fatu or Najin.
Initial success
The Czech zoo first became home to the white rhinos in 1975 when Sudan and a female arrived from Sudan, aged two and three.
Zoologists encouraged the animals to breed but after initial success there has been only one birth in the past 10 years.
“These four animals are the last living chance to get this subspecies back,” Craig said.
-Reuters
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