At one time, around 100 species of rhinos roamed the earth. Today, only five remain and all are among the planet's most at-risk species.
With support from a SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund grant, scientists and veterinarians successfully rescued 72 endangered black rhinos across Zimbabwe last year, to help treat at-risk individuals and aid the species' overall population recovery. The South Africa Black Rhino program, a collaboration between International Rhino Foundation, World Wildlife Fund and various government and community groups, has the straightforward goal of increasing rhino numbers. The program rescues rhinos at risk, provides basic veterinary care, ear-notching and telemetry implantation, then translocates rhinos into historic ranges.
The SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund also helped these groups monitor and strengthen anti-poaching measures. In the Lowveld region of Zimbabwe, an upsurge of rhino poaching has been documented in recent years. In 2007, Fund support helped underwrite a series of dehorning operations to reduce the incentive for poaching. While dehorning remains a controversial strategy, experience in the Lowveld region strongly suggests that dehorning has been effective in reducing the poaching pressure on rhinos, along with conventional anti-poaching measures like informer reward systems.
Due in large part to these Fund-supported interventions, the black rhino population in Zimbabwe is increasing, despite continued poaching pressures.
