of hard work on behalf of black rhino
paying off,"said project head Dr
Jacques Flamand.
"Our sites now have 256 black rhino
on them. And they have been busy.
We had seven calves, born on four
different sites, over the Christmas period.
We’ve had a year of good rain so
far in most of our reserves. We hope
this leads to even more calves next
year.”
Last year, half of BRREP’s sites reached
the 5% annual growth target set by
provincial conservation authorities.
Black rhino numbers in the game reserves
from which they were removed
to create those populations are also
increasing consistently.
This is because consistently removing
a certain number of animals from
a population that is near carrying capacity
helps to stimulate growth.
Project coordinator Ursina Rusch,
who compiles data on all the different
populations so that
can be made for th
the species, explain
of ecological mana
to remove not too
few to get it right.”
Dr Flamand said thi
been a team effort.
“The creation of par
landowners and co
was the key to maki
involved many ded
rely very much on
who have the reso
protecting rhinos. O
would keep them.
"We still need muc
impetus is to be m
cessful increase in
bers means that the
produced and tho
be put into as they
But WWF said this
black rhino were ou
Figure 2: A camera trap showing a black rhino mother and
Grassroots Vol 20 No 2 June 2020