"The last Ark Noah's of rhinos"

The Hluhluwe-Umfolozi National Park, found in Kwa Zulu Natal (South Africa), is the oldest national park in Africa. In the year 1895 the colonial government of the time declared the area a wildlife reserve under government protection, and the national park now spans an area of 96,000 hectares making it the fourth largest wildlife reserve in South Africa. The area is composed of bush landscaped, which is interrupted by wide grassy plains. The Umfolozi and Hluhluwe national parks expanded rapidly, and in 1989 the corridor between the two was also declared a national park, so as to make it possible to join the two parks together.

Nowadays, the national park contains over 1200 plant species, which provide for a large amount of reptiles, amphibians, birds (around 300 types of birds) and mammals, including; black and white rhinoceros, elephants, lions, leopards, buffalos, antelopes, giraffes, wild dogs, cheetahs, baboons and vevert monkeys.

The main attraction of the park however remains its’ population of rhinoceroses, in the early years of the 1960’s, a large amount of rhinos were caught and sent to zoos and reserves all around the world, to ensure the survival of the almost extinct species of white rhinoceroses, dubbed operation rhino. In addition in 1999 a project for the conservation of the lion populations was started to avoid inbreeding.

The Hluhluwe-Umfolozi National Park had a turbulent past. The first human settlements date to approximately 1000. BC, however; in the beginning of the 19th century, the Zulus moved into the area, as a result almost all the animals south of the White Umfolozi River were slaughtered because of a tactic employed at the behest of King Shaka in an attempt to starve out the rival tribe. Even today, evidence of the large animal traps can be found before the junction of the White and Black Umfolozi River. Around the year 1840, many hunters came from Europe to plunder furs, horns and ivory as well as selling specimens of animals to museums.

In additon the animal population was reduced by other catastrophes such as the cattle plague, periods of droughts, the African sleeping sickness and the poisonous DDT.
Nowadays though, the animal population of the park is mostly stable. Although sadly the population of rhinoceroses is reduced to the point where they are threatened by extinction, despite the many precautions taken by the South African government.
Among those who visit the reserve, there can always be those who take it upon themselves to discover the locations of the rhinos, and for that reason, the park no longer gives a reward for discovering the location of the animals.

The white rhinoceros was already almost extinct in 1895, and things haven’t been looking much better for the black rhinoceros. Almost 90% of Africa’s population of rhinos lives in South African wildlife reserves. In 2011, 448 of the animals were killed, in 2012 are 668, and in 2013 more than 1004 (2014=1215, 2015=1178, 2016=1054, 2017=1028 und 2018=769 rhinos).

The horn is worth more than gold in Asia, because there it is considered as an aphrodisiac, and recently a cure for cancer as well. Experts are concerned that in 20 years, the rhinos could be all but extinct, if the exploitation continues at this rate.

This makes it all the more important that places like the Berlin Zoo continue the intensive breeding program of animals like the rhino that are threated by extinction.

©2014 Manfred Restin