Helping Rhinos is thrilled to announce that in partnership with the Kariega Foundation and Freedom to Roam Adventures, Kariega Game Reserve has recently completed the first phase of an ambitious and important habitat expansion project in the beautiful Bushmans River Valley, growing the footprint of our protected area to 11,500 hectares. This new land forms part of our vision to create Rhino Strongholds in key locations, including South Africa’s Eastern Cape.
Incorporating new habitat into a Big 5 wilderness is complex and costly and requires careful planning. Kariega Game Reserve’s ecology and reserve management teams broke the exercise down into two phases, with each phase focusing on a list of criteria to be completed before dropping two major fence lines within Kariega Game Reserve to expand habitat for rhino, elephant and apex predators, like cheetah and a second pride of lion.
Thanks to the generous support of our supporters and our rhino orphan adopters, in collaboration with our partner Zululand Rhino Orphanage we have released seven rhinos back into the wild, where they belong.
The released orphans will continue to be monitored on a daily basis to ensure their safety, and while there is a risk for all rhinos living in the wild, it is important that the rhino orphans are able to roam freely, living a natural life as wild rhinos, playing their part in the future of healthy rhino populations.