African Parks saving private rhinos

The largest rhino farm in the world, home to 2000 animals and located in South Africa, has been bought by NGO African Parks.

White rhinos in the North-West Province of South Africa. Picture: AFP

The largest rhino farm in the world, home to 2000 animals and located in South Africa, has been bought by NGO African Parks.

Home to nearly 80 per cent of the world’s rhinoceroses, South Africa is a poaching hotspot, driven by demand from Asia, where horns are used in traditional medicine for their supposed therapeutic effect.

The government said 448 of the rare animals were killed across the country last year, only three fewer than in 2021, despite increased protection at national parks such as the renowned Kruger.

“African Parks has stepped in as the new owner of the world’s largest private captive rhino breeding operation,” the conservation NGO said on Monday.

The group will take over the 7800ha Platinum Rhino site in the North West province, which it says is home to 15 per cent of the world’s remaining wild population of southern white rhino.

The rhino farm was previously owned by 81-year-old South African conservationist John Hume, who auctioned the property earlier this year.

Although he said he was looking for a “billionaire” to take it over, African Parks said no offers were received, leaving the rhinos at “great risk of poaching”.

The NGO said it had received support from the South Africa government.

Mr Hume said before the sale that over the years he had ­spent about $US150m on his philanthropic project to save the world’s second-largest land mammal. Security and surveillance was the farm’s biggest cost, he said.

African Parks, which manages 22 protected areas across the continent, says it plans to return 2000 southern white rhinos to the wild over the next 10 years.

The species was hunted to near extinction in the late 19th century but gradually recovered thanks to decades of protection and breeding efforts.

AFP