Catching and Carting White Rhino in Uganda

Abstract

In 1961 the Uganda National Parks captured ten white (squarelipped) rhinoceros in West Madi district, west of the Albert Nile, where (hey were being poached out of existence, and transferred them to the Murchison Falls National Park. The operation was financed partly by Anglia Television and described by John Savidge in ORYX, September 1961, vol. VI, 5. Unfortunately the six animals released in the park included only two cows and no mature bull, and the chances of their reproducing were small. So in 1964 a second operation was mounted, financed by the World Wildlife Fund. In this article the author, then Scientific Warden of the Murchison Falls Park, describes this operation which captured and released another five rhino, four of them cows. This greatly improves the chances of breeding, and with freedom from poaching in the park, the rhino now have a reasonable chance of building up the herd. © 1965, Fauna and Flora International. All rights reserved.