Black Rhinos Resurge in Kruger National Park
Jun 11th, 2009 by wwftravel
- (c) South African Tourism
When we visit Kruger National Park on our Southern Africa tour, we’ll have the opportunity to look for black rhinos cooling themselves in mud, munching on vegetation or perhaps dozing for an afternoon nap. That wasn’t always the case. After years of being decimated by poaching and habitat loss, the black rhinos were completely extinct from Kruger by 1945.
Gone were the days of encountering dozens of the solitary animal in a single day, as the European settlers did when they arrived in southern African in the 19th century. These settlers started hunting the rhinos relentlessly, and later a demand for rhino horn in Asia and the Middle East further diminished numbers until the population was just 4 percent of what it had been continent-wide.
Then, between 1971 and 1989, 81 black rhinos were reintroduced into the park, and six more again in 1998. Now there are about 300 and WWF is working with South African wildlife authorities to further increase the number—scientists believe the park can accommodate at least 2,500 more. With excellent infrastructure and an effective counter-poaching team (only one black rhino has been poached in the last 10 years), the future looks bright for Kruger National Park and its black rhinos.
Learn more about WWF’s tours to Africa.
