For 40 Years Threatened With Extinction, Rhinos Are Finally Back To Explore The Mozambique Wilderness

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JAKARTA - After more than four decades of extinction, rhinos are back exploring the jungles of Mozambique.

The country's government brought the endangered species from South Africa in a bid to revive national parks and encourage local tourism.

A group of forest rangers captured, drugged and transported the black and white rhinos over 1,610 km to the 400,000-hectare Zinave National Park in Mozambique. The national park brings in more than 2,300 animals from elsewhere.

"Rhinos are important to the ecosystem, one of the reasons why we bring them from this distance and are doing everything we can to get them there," said Kester Vickery, a conservationist who oversees rhino translocation.

The National Parks Peace Foundation (PPF) conservation group, which is running the effort, plans to relocate 40 more rhinos in the next two years to Mozambique.

PPF project manager Anthony Alexander said his agency had brought certain predatory animals and large numbers of elephants into the park and now it was the rhinos' turn.

"It's great to be able to complement the presence of historic species in the park," he said.

The initiative is part of a rhino rescue program by relocating the endangered animal to a better place where they have the opportunity to increase the population.

Vickery said he hopes to see the white rhino population increase at Zinave in 10 years.

Mozambique's Environment Minister Ivete Maibaze said in a statement that this historic translocation would also benefit the country's thriving ecotourism industry.

Wildlife in Mozambique has been badly hit for 15 years by the civil war that ended in 1992, as well as by poaching.