ナショナルジオグラフィックのインスタグラム(natgeo) - 10月1日 22時00分

Photos by @brentstirton | Conservation NGO African Parks recently took over management of the world’s largest and most genetically diverse rhino breeding operation. The nonprofit now controls just over 2,000 rhinos, an endangered species that has lost 68% of its numbers in the past 12 years from poaching. A little more than 22,000 rhinos remain in Africa today.

African Parks plans to relocate the rhinos now in its care—and currently housed on the world's largest rhino farm, a 21,000-acre spread in South Africa—to safe habitats all over Africa and possibly the world. African Parks sees this as a moral imperative, but it is an awesome responsibility, with huge challenges to continue running the supplementary-feeding program, security apparatus, wildfire protection, and veterinary care for these rhinos. Then there are the massive ongoing relocation costs to come; huge cargo planes will be necessary. Vets from all over Africa will come to the farm to learn from the world’s foremost white rhino vet, Michelle Otto. Many likely relocation options have no recent experience with these animals, so the farm will function as a repository of knowledge to better understand their needs.

Veterinary nurse Claudia Andrione cares for 89 orphans, from babies on milk to weaned juveniles, among them a rhino called Achilles with a prosthetic leg. The supplementary-feeding operation (shown in the third image) ensures that each rhino on the farm receives an average of 10 kg of extra nutrition every day. This is grown and prepared on the farm to ensure the health of the rhinos when conditions are dry. Wildfire, as seen in the fourth image, is a constant threat, and outside of this farm, rhino killings continue unabated. The security team in the last image is one of four that patrol through the night for poachers. It is the hope of African Parks that this massive relocation over the next 10 years will help save the species for a more enlightened time. Read the full story at the link in bio.

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