Australian Rhino Project

Up to 80 African rhinos will be sent to Australia as part of the Australian Rhino Project breeding program. The Australian Rhino Project aims to bring the African rhinos to the Monarto Zoo in South Australia and the Taronga Zoo in Sydney to ensure their survival.

Monarto Zoo established the Australian Rhino Project three years ago, after having rhinos since 2002. Since 2002 the zoo has bred five rhinos. The Monarto Zoo currently has six white rhinos and two black rhinos. About 30 of the proposed 80 African rhinos will be eventually be housed at Monarto.

First Commonwealth Government approval and quarantine is required. The quarantine zoo is the Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo. Initially six rhinos will arrive at the Western Plains Zoo in 2016 from South Africa, with three of them destined for Monarto.

The National Zoo in Canberra, the capital of Australia, also has rhinos (top photograph).

Tbilisi Zoo in Georgia has one rhino. Its companions are a couple of donkeys. These photographs (below) are of the rhino in Georgia.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/threatened-rhinos-earmarked-for-monarto-under-project-to-save-them-from-african-poachers/news-story/8d8c7aa11bc2074e1a5c310c688f04c1

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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