Rhinos Can Fly?

November 14, 2011  
Filed under World News

3,000-pound animals soaring 1,500 kilometers across South America

Rhinoceroses are a critically endangered species, and at least 309 of them have been poached since the beginning of this year alone. South African and Vietnamese officials have met this past September, discussing rhino poaching. The Associated Press has reported that Vietnamese executives want more to be done to fight the myth that rhino horns are a cure for cancer. Now, something is being done to save the rhinos.

The World Wildlife Fund and and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s Black Rhino Range Expansion Project is transporting black rhinos to a secret location in Limpopo province. So far, 19 of these threatened creatures have been transported over 930 miles using a new, bizarre technique.

Darted rhinos are suspended in the air, attached to helicopters, by their ankles. This is gentler on the animals than how they were previously moved: They used to be transported over extremely difficult tracks or in nets by helicopters. This new procedure is a shorter amount of time in which the darted animal has to be kept asleep with drugs, therefore the respiration is not as compromised. Rhinos can be transferred from one place to another more easily this way, and the transfers average less than ten minutes. No ill effects are suffered by these creatures, and they can be moved more smoothly from dangerous situations.

For more pictures, please visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/06/rhino-airlift-black-rhinoceros-photos_n_1076788.html#s454736&title=Black_Rhino_Given

Article By Antonia Piazza

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/06/rhino-airlift-black-rhinoceros-photos_n_1076788.html#s454736&title=Black_Rhino_Given?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl4%7Csec1_lnk2%7C110402

http://www.greenrenaissance.co.za/blog