Rhino Lift May Transport Endangered S. African Animals To Australia For Safekeeping

Dozens of South African rhinos could be moved to Australia in a last-ditch bid to save them from rampant poaching and create an “insurance” population for the species.

Businessmen Ray Dearlove and Allan Davies, founders of the Australian Rhino Project, are in discussions with Taronga Zoo to support the increasingly desperate fight to save the species from extinction.

Last year, a record 1,004 rhinos were illegally killed in South Africa, up from 668 the year before. Most of this poaching takes place in the Kruger National Park, with rhino horn now worth about $20,000 a kilogram.

Rhino horn is highly prized in south-east Asia, where some people erroneously believe that it cures various ailments. The black rhinoceros is considered critically endangered, with one subspecies, the western black rhinoceros, confirmed as extinct last year. The growing poaching problem led to the idea of relocating rhinos to Australia, considered by South African conservationists as be

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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/03/endangered-rhinos-may-be-moved-to-australia-as-insurance