NAIROBI - Four northern white rhinos arrived in Kenya from a Czech zoo yesterday, officials said. They will be set free in a wildlife reserve in a final bid to save their species from extinction.
NAIROBI - Four northern white rhinos arrived in Kenya from a Czech zoo yesterday, officials said. They will be set free in a wildlife reserve in a final bid to save their species from extinction.
"They have arrived, they are well," said Kenya Wildlife Service official Adan Nuri.
The two male and two female rhinos were flown to Nairobi and transferred to lorries for the three-hour journey to the Ol Pejeta reserve in central Kenya, Nuri said.
Czech officials at the Dvur Kralove zoo agreed to send four of their six northern white rhinos. Only eight such rhinos, a sub-species of the white rhino, are known to survive worldwide, all of them in captivity.
Apart from the two at Dvur Kralove, two live at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, California.
The Czech rhinos are the only ones who have managed to reproduce, with the last birth in 2000, a female. The zoo hopes the hormone levels of the female rhinos will get back to normal in Africa, improving chances for breeding. - Sapa-AFP
Saving rare rhinos from extinction
NAIROBI - Four northern white rhinos arrived in Kenya from a Czech zoo yesterday, officials said. They will be set free in a wildlife reserve in a final bid to save their species from extinction.
NAIROBI - Four northern white rhinos arrived in Kenya from a Czech zoo yesterday, officials said. They will be set free in a wildlife reserve in a final bid to save their species from extinction.
"They have arrived, they are well," said Kenya Wildlife Service official Adan Nuri.
The two male and two female rhinos were flown to Nairobi and transferred to lorries for the three-hour journey to the Ol Pejeta reserve in central Kenya, Nuri said.
Czech officials at the Dvur Kralove zoo agreed to send four of their six northern white rhinos. Only eight such rhinos, a sub-species of the white rhino, are known to survive worldwide, all of them in captivity.
Apart from the two at Dvur Kralove, two live at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, California.
The Czech rhinos are the only ones who have managed to reproduce, with the last birth in 2000, a female. The zoo hopes the hormone levels of the female rhinos will get back to normal in Africa, improving chances for breeding. - Sapa-AFP