OL PEJETA CONSERVANCY, Kenya — A 38-year-old northern white rhino born in south Sudan ate African grasses for the first time in three decades Monday, the first full day on the continent for the world’s last four northern white rhinos capable of breeding.
The rhinos’ handlers and park officials hope the rhinos will bear young in their natural habitat and save their subspecies. But the four haven’t reproduced in years, and a U.S. rhino expert sees the effort as futile — suggesting that the northern white rhino is effectively extinct.
The four rhinos landed in Kenya on Sunday after flying from a zoo in the Czech Republic. They were transported in wooden crates that read “Last Chance to Survive.” Only eight northern whites are believed to remain alive.
“It makes no sense to move them at this point in time. It’s way too little, too late,” said Randy Rieches, curator of mammals for the San Diego Wild Animal Park, which has two northern whites. “That’s based on a lot of knowledge, a lot of husbandry and certainly a lot of reproductive background.”
Rhino handlers and park officials in Kenya said that even if chances of success are low, they have to try.
“I’d say of course there’s a chance. What was the option? That they stay in the zoo and not breed?” said Berry White, a woman known as the “rhino whisperer” who helped prep the mammals for their move. “Yes, of course a lot of money was spent (moving the rhinos), but people wanted to spend money on this project.”
The rhinos will remain penned in the Kenyan park as they get used to the climate and vegetation. They will be given more room to roam in coming weeks and eventually released to the entire park.
“They’re doing great,” White said Monday morning outside of a rhino’s pen, which had a patch of African grass in the middle of it. “He’s grazing now. He’s grazing for the first time in 33 years.”
