Botswana Rhino Relocation and Reintroduction Project
Over 2009, the rhino of the Okavango Delta continued to be monitored daily by Poster Mpho Malongwa and his assistant George Njunja James based out of Mombo Camp on Chief 's Island in close collaboration with the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP), the Anti-Poaching Unit (APU). Three white rhino were born during the year, affirming how well the species is doing in the Okavango.
A major horn implant replacement operation was carried out in 2009. Horn implants are replaced every couple of years due to battery life limitations. The operation was made possible by the combined efforts of Wilderness Safaris staff, the DWNP, APU, the DWNP Air Division, Sefofane Air Charters, Northern Air Maintenance and highly skilled vets. The operation was highly successful thanks to the hard work and dedication of all involved as well as generous funding from guests and from the Wilderness Trust.
In 2003 four black rhino, two males and two females, were released into the Okavango Delta. The animals adapted well to their new surroundings, but as is typical of black rhino being reintroduced into the wild, they did not breed as readily as the white rhino that were introduced previously. There was great joy in September 2009, when a tracking team consisting of Malongwa and three members of the APU carried out a rhino patrol to check up on these animals and found one of the females with her calf, estimated to be about six months old. The name of the new calf is 'Boipuso' - meaning 'Independence', as it was located during Botswana's Independence week.
The current focus of the project has shifted to raising funds to bring in more black rhino in order to form a healthy founder population in the Okavango Delta. With a large enough population of black rhino to make up a minimum viable population, it is hoped that they will begin reproducing and re-expanding their range into parts of Botswana where they have not been seen in many years.
Report - 2008
This past year has been extremely successful with the birth of four new white rhino calves with a total of 19 calves born to date (the first was born in 2004). They are all doing well and are monitored regularly.
A female white rhino and her sub-adult daughter had moved approximately 250km from Mombo to an area close the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. They seemed happily settled in this new area, so arrangements were made to bring in a rhino bull from Kgama Rhino Sanctuary to join them. The three have been spending lots of time together - good news for a new happy family.
January 2007
2006 saw the birth of only one calf to the white rhino population in Moremi. This was the second calf born to a female released at Mombo during November 2002. Her first calf was born at Mombo during May 2004 making the two calves almost two years apart. This is a sure sign that conditions at Mombo are perfect for the white rhino, in that they have security, space, food and water. The monitoring officer, Poster Mpho, is expecting further births at any time, also to females who have previously produced calves in 2004.
During this year most of the original transmitters fitted to the rhinos on release during 2002/3 had used up their batteries. Without the transmitters working, monitoring work became difficult and time consuming. However, our master rhino tracker and monitoring officer, Poster, has had significant success under difficult conditions. This necessitated the planning and action of a project to fit new transmitters to many of the rhino.
The Story so Far - February 2006
Map Ives
Once the rhinos were released, we activated our monitoring programme, using radio transmitters embedded in the rhino's horns to track them and learn about their movements, diet, and social behaviour. This was the first time that anyone had been able to study wild rhinos in the Okavango Delta, and presents an incredible opportunity for ongoing research.
At the same time, working with the wildlife scouts of the Anti-Poaching Unit, we are able to provide excellent security for the rhinos, and to actively deter any would-be poachers. From the outset, we have had excellent sightings of the rhinos, and we saw a great deal of fascinating interaction between this and other species: elephant, lion, warthog and giraffe, to name but a few - none of which of course had ever seen a rhino before!
Releasing these four rhinos was just the first step in what has grown to be a very ambitious project. In order to increase the number of rhinos in the Moremi Game Reserve, an exchange programme was undertaken with South Africa, whereby rare roan antelope from northern Botswana were donated to South Africa, to assist important breeding initiatives there, and well over twenty white rhinos travelled up to Botswana. They were flown by the Botswana Defence Force to Maun, and then driven up Chief's Island to Mombo - a mostly nocturnal journey of almost 15 hours. On arrival at Mombo, each batch of rhinos was again kept for a few weeks in the bomas (holding pens) to allow them to acclimatise to the new sights, sounds, and smells of the Okavango, before being released.
We began to observe all the social and territorial behaviour we would expect from them, and we learnt a great deal about their response to the annual flood, to rainfall, and to other animals.
Finally, in July 2004, just two years after the first releases, we found something that made us all very excited indeed: the telltale, tiny tracks of a white rhino calf. We were able to follow these tracks and find a calf aged just 10 days old - an impossibly cute, miniature rhino, and the icing on the cake for us. Not only had the rhinos adapted to their new home, but they had also bred and now given birth successfully - and we were looking at the first rhino born in the wild in this country in at least 15 years. Another truly historic moment, and one that made us all immensely proud.
We named the first calf 'Dimpho,' which means "many gifts" in local Setswana - and we trust that she will indeed be the first of many. Since then, we have found eight more white rhino calves, so they are breeding extremely well. Despite the high concentration of lions and hyaenas in the Mombo area, the mother rhinos have done an exceptional job of raising their calves - some of which are almost a year old now, much larger than when we first saw them!
We can confidently say that this project has been a great success. It is now just over three years since the first release, and at the time of writing we have 35 white rhinos wild in Botswana as a result of this project, five of which were born in the Okavango Delta. An absent species has been reintroduced and is doing extremely well here. We have had veteran guides visit us who last saw rhinos in this area in the 1980s, and to see a wild rhino here again quite literally brought tears to their eyes.
In late 2003, we began the second phase of this project - namely the reintroduction of the endangered black rhino into the Okavango. The black rhino was historically found in Botswana, but tragically they were all shot out before they could be saved, and so for a decade this species was officially "locally extinct" in Botswana. Naturally, this was a situation we wanted to reverse, and having cut our teeth on the white rhino, we were able to obtain black rhinos of the correct subspecies - again, a pioneer population of two bulls and two cows.
It turns out that this is a very different beast to the white rhino, and there was a lot for us all to learn. In contrast to white rhinos, which feed exclusively on grass, the black rhino feeds on leaves and twigs in the same way as a kudu or a giraffe does. So the great tracts of acacia-filled country here offer them a wonderful habitat. Just two years after the white rhino release, we once again welcomed the Vice President of Botswana to Mombo, this time to open the gates to release the first black rhinos. Yet another historic moment - and sometimes it is breathtaking to look at how much has been achieved in such a short time.
In late 2001, there were no wild rhinos anywhere in Botswana. Now there are 39, including the four black rhinos. An achievement of which we can all be justly proud!
While we will continue to monitor, protect and study the white rhinos, the emphasis of this project will now shift much more to the black rhino. We want to release many more of these animals here, so that we can reach a level where they too will become a viable breeding population. This highly endangered species is difficult to come by, and the SADC (Southern African Development Community) Rhino Group is assisting with sourcing further animals towards their relocation at Mombo. Six black rhino have been identified and will be brought to Botswana during 2006, coming from Eastern Cape Parks and North West Parks, in South Africa. These will go a long way towards our "viable" herd, but we will need to take the numbers closer to 25 for this to become a success. We are committed to continue with this valuable project until rhinos of both species are once again successful in the wilds of northern Botswana.
With this goal in mind, we are involved in another very ambitious international rhino transfer - this time moving black rhinos from threatened areas in Zimbabwe to Botswana. They will be paid for in kind: by providing training and assistance to Zimbabwe's game scouts to help them combat that country's poaching problem. We are now actively engaged in raising funds to make this happen.
Thanks
We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the expertise and assistance we have been given by South Africa National Parks (SANParks), as well as the funding generously given to us by the Wilderness Safaris Wildlife Trust, the Tusk Trust in the UK, and SAVE Australia.
As in July, we have tried to devote more time to looking for some of our more elusive rhinos, and we have had some great results this way. Also, we have had some very interesting "near misses", especially with black rhinos. This means that we perhaps see fewer rhinos per patrol, as well as across the month as a whole, but it does give us a more comprehensive picture of the rhinos' current movements.
Most of the rhinos we are regularly able to locate have shown only limited movements this month. There have been some notable exceptions, however - especially Mmabontsho and Mathathane and Maitobolo. Many areas of Chiefs Island are now very dry and the floodwaters are beginning to recede in many areas. This year's flood was definitely below average, at least in this area, and is evaporating quickly. If the rains are late again this year, or patchy, we could see a decline in the condition of some of the animals here as food and water become scarce. This has not previously been a problem for rhinos in the Moremi Game Reserve, but we will have to monitor their condition carefully as we move into summer.
In both the Mombo and rhino HQ areas, we have seen something of a movement eastwards by "resident" rhinos - moving towards channels and other flooded areas. The best grazing is to be found in these areas; many other areas are extremely dry already, and it is only the end of August. There has been, to an extent, a reversal of the trend we had begun to see of rhinos in the Rhino HQ area in particular, beginning to move west.
The further east the Mombo area rhinos move, the less likely they are to be seen by Mombo guests, as they are all now at or beyond the edges of the areas we usually cover on game drives.
It seems that this year's (rather mild) winter is largely behind us. August is, according to traditional wisdom, the windiest month in Botswana, and this month has been no exception. Although in general, temperatures are climbing again, the regular breezes (and occasional strong winds) certainly play a role in making it seem cooler (the wind-chill factor).
Temperatures in August have been noticeably higher this month than in July - we are coming into the brief Botswana spring now. Daytime temperatures this month have varied between 27-34°C (84- 98°F), with an average of 24.5°C (89°F). The nights are of course somewhat cooler, with temperatures ranging from 19°C (68°F) down to 8°C (46°F). As expected at this time of year, no rainfall was experienced during August. We have had some cloudy and hazy days, but it seems that these may be largely due to the annual phenomenon of controlled burning for agricultural purposes in the Caprivi Strip.
The effect of the winds this month has been, as noted above, to produce lower temperatures, so rhino behaviour has been similar to the colder months of June and July. Rhinos are quite susceptible to changes in temperature, and do not seem to enjoy either very low or very high temperatures. Although typically they are more active in the cooler parts of the day, and at night, they are tending to become more active later in the day - once temperatures have risen a little - and to remain active until much later in the day, with a shorter rest period during the day. They then become active again much earlier in the afternoons. All of which actually means that we are more likely to see rhinos without needing to track them, and to come across more spoor, which we can track.
In previous years, we have seen a definite trend of white rhinos moving out into the floodplains, following the receding flood to feed on grass species which grow particularly well on recently inundated areas. As this year's flood was low, and is already in retreat, it will be interesting to see if the rhinos start to move off Chiefs Island earlier than they have done in previous years. As yet, however, we have seen no concrete evidence of this.
Currently, it seems that the movements of the resident rhinos are tied to water availability, and they are concentrated now close to the major channels and flooded areas to the east, particularly the channel which runs past the Anti-Poaching Unit and then down the eastern side of Chiefs Island. Channels and other flooded areas are, of course, the only sources of water at present. In most areas away from the channels the grass is now very dry and presumably less palatable and nutritious, although we know that rhinos can, and do, eat drier grasses.
Our understanding of rhino movements in the areas we most frequently patrol - Serondela and Sergeant's territories - remains very good, but within these areas we have to take into account rhino social behaviour which does, of course, have a significant effect on the movements of individual rhinos, although this month it really does seem that water is exerting the most magnetic pull on the rhinos.
This month in general, "resident" rhinos (that is, those that tend to stay within a certain area, have done for some time, and do not tend to make significant movements) have been moving in fairly restricted areas. If anything, there has been a general shift to the more eastern parts of home ranges and territories - i.e., towards water. This has made our job a little easier, but as ever, there are a few rhinos that seem to have pronounced cases of wanderlust.
As last month, we have had a few surprises and a few learning experiences: we now have a much better understanding of the movements of Mmabontsho (black rhino female) and the sheer distances she regularly covers. Also further evidence of Mathanthane and Maitobolo's pronounced movements. Big Joe, it seems, has returned to more familiar areas, that is, Sergeant's territory.
Most of the breakthroughs in understanding we have made this month have been due to intensive tracking efforts by Poster and the APU trackers (the current Mathathane team includes some excellent trackers), and some long walks on spoor.
We have also been able to finally confirm that our newest calf, Lonetree II (Warona's calf, now approximately three months old) is a female. This means that of our six known calves, three are female (Maitobolo, Dimpho, Lonetree II), two are male (Valentine and Lesego) and one is still unknown, despite being now +/- one year old (Lebogang). We believe that there may be at least one more calf that we have been unable, as yet, to locate (with Moremi being the mother). We suspect that in fact, the seventh calf may already have been born (to Moremi) although this is merely a hypothesis, and we have no actual evidence of this, beyond the behaviour of previous expectant mothers. There are very good indications that one of the adult females in Sergeant's territory, Piajio, is about to give birth. However, this has been the position with her for some time, so we may be mistaken here.
Three of our calves are now over a year old, and in two cases, the mothers are almost certainly ready to come into oestrus again - Mamatimpani and Dimpho - so it is not impossible that by the end of next year, we may see females having their second Mombo calves. By the end of 2010 or thereabouts, we could start to see the first calves born at Mombo to rhinos which themselves were born here….
With no further births being recorded this month, and no deaths, the known population stands at a constant 33 white rhinos and 4 black rhinos, with male : female : unknown ratios being 10:22:1 and 2:2:0 respectively. No deaths have been recorded in nearly two years and the population of white rhinos is growing at a very healthy rate. The next calf to be born (which will be our seventh) will mean that the Mombo Re-Introduction Project will, in addition to its many other achievements, have contributed a net gain to the world's white rhino population.
Nick Galpine - Mombo - August 2005
From Mombo Rhino Newsletter Jan 04
Building on our successes of the last two years, we have very ambitious plans for 2004, focusing on increasing our black rhino population. In a US$1 million project, we are looking to reintroduce a further 14 black rhino during this year. We are hoping to bring in seven wild female black rhinos from Zimbabwe, and to rehabilitate seven black rhino males from zoos in the USA and Australia. This has been done before, and it should take about six months to "teach" these bulls to be wild rhinos again. To "buy" the rhinos from Zimbabwe, the national parks department there is being given training and assistance to the value of the rhinos, rather than cash. At Wilderness Safaris we have pledged to raise US$60,000 - the auction value of one black rhino.
