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Luangwa Valley Dispatches
By Jake da Motto
You may not be aware of it but there is a model conservation project
running in the North Luangwa funded by the Frankfurt Zoological
Society (FZS) and several other donors and implementing, through
ZAWA, what is probably one of the most successful working examples
of a State and NGO joint conservation initiative in Africa, What the
North Luangwa Conservation Project (NLCP) achieves with a fairly
modest budget leaves most other park management projects in the
country awestruck and eclipsed. It is no small indication of the
NLCP’s success and integrity that the South African National Parks,
North West Parks and Eastern Cape Parks Boards have in the last four
years given Zambia 15 black rhino. These would normally be
exchanged for not less than a small herd of valuable game (such as
sable and roan)….if at all. They simply would not do this
unless they believed that the future of these animals was in good
hands. The project owes its success to the excellent joint
management of ZAWA and NLCP and the unflagging vision and drive of
Hugo and Elsabe van der Westhuizen (the Directors of NLCP) without
whose energy and commitment the relocation proposal would never have
become a reality.
Prehistorically the Rhinoceros family was quite successful,
widespread and represented by thirty genera in the fossil record; of
which the Black Rhino (Diceros bicornis) is one of five
surviving species. Originating in Asia, the early models were built
on a tapir-horse design. Had Mother Nature predicted the rude
success of the Hominid group she might have kept streamlining
the rhino rather than allowing them to grow bigger, blinder, slower
and possessed of a large phallic trophy which was always
going to draw the attention of the intelligent and sex obsessed
ape-men. Asian medicine (which along with Asian cookery has come up
with recipes requiring the use of the most obscure parts of the most
endangered species) has always imbued rhino horn with curative
properties to combat fevers, headaches, toxins, typhoid, jaundice,
rashes, vomiting or excreting blood and if you’re a Gujurati with
penile dysfunction….that too. Rhino horn (which is physiologically
no more special than cow horn) is also prized in Yemen for dagger
handles which seems gratuitous when with the price of oil, any self
respecting Yemeni should be toting a gold plated AK47.
A
mere forty years ago, the global Black Rhino population still
numbered a reasonably healthy 65,000. Today there are an estimated
3,500 animals left. The other species have been similarly incapable
of surviving the human onslaught with the Southern White Rhino (a
more docile and tractable species) doing better than any other
numbering 11,320 animals in the wild. The Northern White Rhino is on
evolutionary “short-finals” after the collapse of the management
project in Garamba NP (DRC), where the last 5 individuals on the
planet are sitting in extinction’s waiting room. The Indian Rhino is
down to 2500 animals. The hairy (and quite cuddly in a behemothic
sort of way) Sumatran Rhino “boasts” 300 animals and the Javan
Rhino, whose horn is ten times more valuable than that of its
African cousins to a Taiwanese apothecary, has been reduced to a
shameful 60 animals. Not a great situation in all with only 19,290
rhinos of all species left on Earth if all the captive animals are
included. Probably not many more than the Black Rhino population in
the Luangwa Valley alone a mere fifty years ago!
The NLCP and ZAWA first tabled a proposal to reintroduce the black
rhino to Zambia in 2001 after years of negotiations. In the same
year the SADC Regional Program for Rhino Conservation undertook a
feasibility study which concluded that the North Park was a viable
location for the reintroduction of a herd of at least 20 animals,
the minimum required to ensure genetic diversity in a breeding
nucleus. Funding was secured for the initial stage, much of this
coming (via the Conservation Foundation Zambia) from Paul Tudor
Jones II, an American hedge fund manager. Who would have thought
there was so much money in topiary? The Tudor organisation have put
US$250K into the ZAWA/NLCP rhino project since they started
enclosing the initial sanctuary of 55 km² with 37 km of electrified
fence. The additional sanctuary to cater for the latest
reintroduction adjoins this and increases the area by a further 170
km² with the addition of 42 km of three strand fencing which will be
reduced in height to prevent damage by lower slung species stepping
over it. The fence dividing the two groups will eventually be
removed once they have established their territories.
The initial 5 rhino (three females and two males) arrived in North
Luangwa in May 2003 and by May 2005 had sired and produced the first
home-grown calf as well as international support, local school
projects and a wider awareness of conservation issues in Zambia.
ZAWA has made a long term commitment to the security of the animals
and with donor funded training now providing the NLCP with 145
anti-poaching scouts of whom 60 are specially trained for rhino
protection. Of these 30 are always on perimeter patrol and tracking
the rhino on foot. Their salaries are met by ZAWA.
Other benefactors include the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the
Prince Bernhard Fund for Nature and the Beit Trust. The Save the
Rhino Trust (Zambia) who lost the anti-poaching war in the Luangwa
Valley against overwhelming odds in the ‘70s and ‘80s have rejoined
the fray with a donation of $125,000, which went a long way to
paying for the two relocation trips this year, bringing in the 10
new rhino from South Africa (3 males and 7 females one of whom is
pregnant…bonus!).
There is a certain symmetry to the fact that the new extended
sanctuary encompassing the confluence of the Luanga and Mfungwa
rivers is mentioned often in the patrol reports of Phil Berry (SRT’s
legendary rhino preservationist) as having an historically high
natural rhino population. One of Phil’s favourite bush camps (Mutofwe)
is within the ring fence, so the area has proven good habitat for
rhinos and rhino guardians alike!
A
further £21,000 was raised by a new charity called “Horny@50”. This
small band of 47 year old property folk from the UK (one of whom has
long ties to the Luangwa) aims to raise £300,000 for world rhino
conservation projects over the next three years. Excellent payback
from some of the intelligent and sex obsessed ape-men mentioned
earlier!
Quiet professionalism was the order of both relocation days. Hugo
and FZS rhino coordinator Dr. Pete Morkel (who is to rhino
relocation what the Pope is to Catholicism) directed the smooth
offloading of the heavily sedated rhinos under the watchful eyes of
the anti-poaching team. With the help of the incredibly dedicated
and slick band of wildlife managers, pilots, vets, “rhino
whisperers”, drivers and assistants, they were then transported to
the new bomas where they are all doing well and will have radio
transmitters implanted in their horns and then be released into
their new home.
Most of both days was spent watching large crates being delicately
moved from the belly of the enormous C130 onto tractors and trucks
and so carefully (and quite rightly) were the rhinos protected from
unnecessary disturbance, that the crates might have contained pianos
for all the observers saw of the beasts themselves. I was however
lucky enough to ride on one of the trucks transporting a female
rhino to the sanctuary and in between hanging on and chatting to a
vet from Kruger, became aware of great gusts of moist, warm
horse-like air in my ear. A prehensile lip probed the gap in the
crate by my face and a calm and slightly bleary dark eye looked out
at me. After 21 rhino free years in the Valley I inhaled a lung-full
of lucerne scented bicorn breath and said hello to my first Luangwa
rhinoceros. What a great day. |
July
2006