As a rhinoceros lumbers across a field in South Africa, a helicopter suddenly appears. With the aircraft hovering overhead, the massive mammal breaks into a run—but it isn’t fast enough. A skilled shooter leans out of the helicopter and takes aim. With one shot, he knocks the 4,000-pound animal to the ground.
Illegal hunters kill a rhino every 8.5 hours in South Africa. But this rhino is one of the lucky ones. Groggy but unhurt, it has been hit by a tranquilizer dart and is now in the hands of a conservation group called Rhinos Without Borders.
A team of skilled vets, animal handlers, and armed guards will transport the animal to a secret location in South Africa. Then they’ll carefully fly the rhino to the neighboring country of Botswana and release it into the wild.
Botswana has one of the lowest rates of poaching in Africa. That’s why Rhinos Without Borders aims to finish moving 100 rhinos there by the end of this year. The project, which began in 2014, is one of the largest airlifts of rhinos in history. As of press time, the group had already moved 77 of the animals.
At a cost of about $45,000 per rhino, the move is expensive—and extreme. But experts say that if drastic measures aren’t taken, Africa’s rhinos could become extinct within 10 years.
In 2015 alone, poachers wiped out more than 1,300 rhinos across the continent, almost all in South Africa. Since 2008, poachers have killed about 6,100 rhinos in South Africa.
Poachers kill the animals for their horns, which can fetch tens of thousands of dollars per pound on the black market in Southeast Asia. Many people there mistakenly believe rhino horn has healing properties. In reality, the horns are made of keratin, the same material found in human fingernails, and have no known medicinal value.
As a rhinoceros lumbers across a field in South Africa, a helicopter suddenly appears. With the aircraft hovering overhead, the massive mammal breaks into a run. But it isn’t fast enough. A skilled shooter leans out of the helicopter and takes aim. With one shot, he knocks the 4,000-pound animal to the ground.
Illegal hunters kill a rhino every 8.5 hours in South Africa. But this rhino is one of the lucky ones. The rhino is dizzy but not hurt, because it has been hit by a tranquilizer dart. It is now in the hands of a conservation group called Rhinos Without Borders.
A team of skilled vets, animal handlers, and armed guards will transport the animal to a secret location in South Africa. Then they’ll carefully fly the rhino to the neighboring country of Botswana and release it into the wild.
Botswana has one of the lowest rates of poaching in Africa. That’s why Rhinos Without Borders aims to finish moving 100 rhinos there by the end of this year. The project began in 2014. It is one of the largest airlifts of rhinos in history. As of press time, the group had already moved 77 of the animals.
At a cost of about $45,000 per rhino, the move is expensive and extreme. But experts say that if drastic measures aren’t taken, Africa’s rhinos could become extinct within 10 years.
In 2015 alone, poachers wiped out more than 1,300 rhinos across the continent, almost all in South Africa. Since 2008, poachers have killed about 6,100 rhinos in South Africa.
Poachers kill the animals for their horns. These can fetch tens of thousands of dollars per pound on the black market in Southeast Asia. Many people there mistakenly believe rhino horn has healing properties. In reality, the horns have no known medicinal value. They are made of keratin. That’s the same material found in human fingernails.