The secret rewilding project that could save the white rhino

The rhinos rouse themselves as we approach, then trot off through the grass, looking surprisingly skittish for animals the size of a family car. 

Nearby, another group sheltering from the sun turn their heads towards us warily. In the distance, more of the animals break cover from a tree line to inspect what’s going on.

There seem to be rhinos in every direction.

In fact, this single secret location outside Johannesburg, South Africa, is home to an extraordinary 2,000 white rhinos, equivalent to one in seven of the world’s entire population.

Six months ago, the future of this sanctuary was in doubt. The owner of the 21,000-acre Platinum Rhino farm could not raise the money to keep it going, but also could not find any bidders willing to take it on.

With the venture in jeopardy, it seemed inevitable that the herd would be cut loose, left vulnerable to the country’s poachers.

However, the future of the captive breeding farm has since been secured, thanks to its purchase by African Parks, a conservation charity whose board members include the Duke of Sussex.

The purchase has also put the farm’s rhino inhabitants at the centre of one of the most ambitious animal rewilding projects ever undertaken.

The goal of this new programme is nothing less than to permanently secure the future of the white rhino in Africa.

The new owners hope that over the next decade, they can transfer all the rhinos from the farm back into wild, protected spaces across Africa, building enough sustainable populations to put the animals beyond the risk of extinction.

If successful, it would mark an extraordinary turnaround for a species that only 90 years ago was on the verge of disappearing.

“This is once in a lifetime,” says the farm’s new manager, Don Jooste, of the scale of the conservation opportunity that the farm represents.

“It’s one of the biggest operations, at scale on a species specific level, that’s been done.”

He went on: “What success looks like in 10 years is putting a lock on the gate and knowing that all these rhinos have been rewilded.

“Right now it’s unbelievable to see this amount of rhino in an open space, but it would be even more unbelievable to see that last rhino jump off the truck and know that you have put them back into their natural habitat, into their environment, where they should be.”

The animals on the farm in South Africa’s North West Province are southern white rhinos, one of two remaining sub-species of white rhinos. Their close cousin, the northern white rhino, is functionally extinct, with only two females left in captivity.

Southern white rhinos themselves nearly vanished in the early 20th century. The population fell to as few as 30 or 40 animals in the 1930s, until extensive conservation efforts reversed their fortunes. By 2010 the worldwide population had grown to around 20,000.

Sadly much of these gains have been lost since then, due to rampant poaching driven by international demand for rhino horn. Rhino horn is used in some traditional Chinese medicine, and is also viewed as a status symbol in parts of Asia.

Some 12,000 rhinos are estimated to have been killed in the past decade.

Four-fifths of those remaining are in South Africa, with smaller populations in Kenya, Uganda, Namibia, Zambia, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

African Parks estimates that to secure the future of the species, it needs to build somewhere between seven and 20 self-sustaining populations across the entire continent.

The farm’s rhinos will be used to either top up and reinforce existing populations, or in some cases be used as the foundation for whole new populations in areas where rhinos have been wiped out.

There are currently around 2,000 rhinos on the farm, but with more being born all the time, it’s hoped that up to 3,000 of the animals will be put back into the wild once the project draws to a close in a decade.

“It’s a really unique story in conservation in Africa today and just so much potential, so much hope,” says Jean Labuschagne, director of conservation development at African Parks.

“I think it’s obviously enormously challenging and none of us are blind to that, but it’s an opportunity that isn’t easily going to come around again.

“This is a strategic rewilding initiative. We want to basically try and de-risk the species.”

The farm owes its existence to an entrepreneur called John Hume, who built up the herd over 30 years. He had hoped to fund his captive breeding conservation efforts by trimming and selling rhino horn, but ran out of money following a global ban on sales.

African Parks declines to say how much it paid Mr Hume, but says it was a small fraction of the initial £8 million asking price.

Running such a farm is not cheap. It takes 100 staff and significant security spending.

The running costs are estimated to be around £3 million per year, while transporting a rhino within South Africa will cost around £1,200, or £4,000 to move one elsewhere in southern Africa.

African Parks currently manages 22 national parks and protected areas in a dozen African countries, getting its money from a mixture of individual philanthropists, governments and international bodies.

The animals on the farm have been raised in more intensive conditions than in nature, but are still largely wild. Mr Jooste is confident they can adapt to new surroundings after being transferred.

But to ensure this once-in-a-lifetime chance is not squandered, African Parks is having to be painstaking. Experts are currently drawing up guidelines which will dictate where rhinos can be transferred to and in what numbers. The group has to be confident the new destinations are secure, safe and sustainable.

The first transfers are expected to take place later this year.

However, it comes at a time of controversy for African Parks. Last month, guards paid for by the charity were accused of raping and beating indigenous people in the Republic of Congo. The Duke of Sussex has since been urged to resign from his position at the charity.

The charity said it had launched an investigation led by an external law firm and had “a zero-tolerance policy for any form of abuse”.

A statement said: “This is an active, ongoing investigation that is our highest priority as an organisation, and we encourage anyone with knowledge of any abuses to report them to us or to the Congolese law enforcement authorities which will assist with the investigation and ensure that the perpetrators of any abuses are brought to justice.”

African Parks is not the only project championing rhino conservation. Last month, in Kenya, authorities began transferring black rhinos out of overcrowded parks into new havens. 

Kenya Wildlife Service will translocate a mix of 21 female and male eastern black rhinos to Loisaba Conservancy, in the highlands of Laikipia County, where poachers killed the last of the species 50 years ago.

Numbers of Kenya’s black rhinos have risen from 240 in 1984 to 966 today.

There has even been a glimmer of good news for the functionally extinct northern white rhino.

Scientists in January achieved the world’s first IVF rhino pregnancy. The technique could one day allow the surviving northern white rhino cows to carry embryos fertilised by the species’ males before they died out.

Securing the white rhino will not only save that animal, but will also boost wider conservation, African Parks hopes.

Ms Labuschagne says: “To be able to see white rhino coming back to countries, where you reintroduce a white rhino, that sense of pride, that sense of ownership, that overwhelming excitement at every level of society is so powerful to see.”

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