HOMECOMING: They’re back! Rhino orphans return to the shores of Lake Kariba

Three decades after their parents were evacuated to save them from the bullets of poachers, a group of black rhinos has returned home to Zimbabwe’s Matusadona National Park.

The once abundant population of black rhinos in northern Zimbabwe was almost wiped out by gangs of Zambian-based poachers during the late 1980s and early 1990s, prompting a desperate effort to save the survivors.

Under the leadership of former Zimbabwe parks chief warden Glen Tatham, scores of these endangered animals were moved from Matusadona and other parks in the Zambezi Valley to more secure sanctuaries in central or southern Zimbabwe during Operation Stronghold.

Now, an undisclosed number of their descendants have been flown home to the 147,000ha Matusadona National Park on the southern shores of Lake Kariba.

In a statement, the African Parks group said the foresight of moving survivors to other areas had proved critical. This had ensured that the animals were safeguarded through one of its most difficult periods, also preserving the genetic lineage of the animals from the region.

“Some of the translocated animals are direct descendants of those moved out of Matusadona more than three decades ago.”

Matusadona Park Manager Michael Pelham recalled: “I was here in the 1990s when we lost them. I helped capture the last survivors, we crated them and flew them out to safety, not knowing if the species would ever come back.

“Having witnessed the rhino’s catastrophic decline in Matusadona, it is incredibly emotional to see their return. This reserve is synonymous with black rhino, and walking through this landscape recently, there has been an overbearing sense that we are missing an icon.

“No words can describe the feeling of seeing these animals arrive back here.”

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