20091220
guardian

Four of last eight rhinos from endangered subspecies are sent to Kenya from Czech zoo with aim of repopulating their homeland

Four of the world's last eight northern white rhinos landed in Kenya today and were transported to a game park where officials hope the endangered animals will reproduce and save their subspecies.

No white rhinos are known to remain in the wild, and the transported animals have produced no offspring after nearly 24 years in a Czech zoo. So wildlife workers hoping to save the subspecies loaded two males and two females into wooden crates and began the effort to return them to what was once their savannah homeland.

When teams of Kenyan wildlife workers opened the crates, two of the rhinos lingered several minutes before moving to a larger pen as Czech animal handlers coaxed them out.

The rhinos' handlers and park officials said they hoped the two females will bear as many young as possible for several years but all those involved acknowledged it was not a sure bet that the rhinos would reproduce.

The northern white rhino is the world's rarest large mammal. "Objective No 1 is to get as many offspring as you can from the females – at least one calf out of each within two years," said Rob Brett, the director of Fauna and Flora International, the organisation that helped arrange and finance the move.

The rhinos were transported in large wooden crates by the international shipping company DHL on two flatbed trucks. On the side of the crates was written "Last Chance to Survive."

The four were flown from a zoo in the Czech Republic to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy – about 180 miles north of the capital, Kenya – where a black rhino population has made strong gains and the rhinos will be protected from poachers.

Two northern whites remain behind in the Czech zoo; two others are in San Diego. The aim of the project – years down the line – is to reintroduce the rhino to southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, said Patrick Omondi, of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Alastair Lucas, the vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs in Australia, helped finance the rhinos' move to Kenya, a project he became involved with earlier this year after visiting Uganda and being told parks there no longer have rhinos. He declined to say how much he donated or the cost of moving the animals.

"Shipping rhinos across the world is not cheap. They don't fit in economy seats," he said. "I had to fly them business class."

The rhinos will remain penned in the Kenyan park as they adapt to the climate and vegetation. They will be given more room to roam in coming weeks and will eventually be released to the entire park.