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REPORT – In this photo taken on Saturday, January 14, 2006, a four-year-old Black Rhino female runs after being thrown into Nairobi National Park. On Friday, July 13, 2018, a Kenyan wildlife official said seven critically endangered black rhinos died after trying to move them from the capital to a national park hundreds of kilometers away. (AP photo / Sayyid Abdul Azim, file)
Eight critically endangered black rhinos died in Kenya after wildlife workers moved them from the capital to a new national park, the government said on Friday. "unprecedented" Preliminary research indicates saline intoxication as rhinos attempt to adapt to salt water in their new home, said the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife in a statement describing how the animals were probably dehydrated and drunk more
The ministry suspended the ongoing rhinoceros movement and said the survivors in the new park were being closely watched.
The loss is "a complete disaster," said prominent Kenyan environmental protector Paula Kahumbu WildlifeDirect
Nature advocates in Africa have worked hard to protect the subspecies of black rhinos against poachers who target them for their horns to provide an illegal Asian market. 03] By moving a group of 11 rhinos to Nairobi's new Tsavo East National Park last month, the Kenya Wildlife Service said it hoped to boost the population there. The government agency did not say how the rhinos died. Fourteen of the animals were to be moved in full
"Disciplinary measures will certainly be taken" if a death investigation indicates negligence by agency staff, said the Department of Wildlife.
"Moving rhinos is complicated When moving gold bullion, it requires extremely careful planning and security because of the value of these rare animals," Kahumbu said in a statement. "Rhinoceros translocations also have major welfare considerations and I fear the suffering endured by these poor animals before they died."
Wildlife transportation is a strategy used by conservationists to promote their lives. environment to restore or even reduce animal populations. In May, six black rhinos were moved from South Africa to Chad, bringing the species back to northern central Africa for nearly half a century. after annihilation
said the Department of Wildlife.
According to WWF, black rhinoceros populations declined dramatically in the 20th century, mostly in the hands of European hunters and settlers. Between 1960 and 1995, the numbers dropped by 98% to less than 2,500.
Since then, the species has rebounded, although it remains extremely threatened. In addition to poaching, animals also face habitat loss. African Parks, a conservation group based in Johannesburg, said earlier this year that there were fewer than 25,000 rhinos in the African wilderness, about 20% of which are black rhinos. In another major setback for conservation, the last remaining male white rhino died in March in Kenya, leaving conservatives struggling to save this subspecies using in vitro fertilization
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