美国国家公共电台 NPR Critically Endangered Black Rhinos Die After Transportation To Kenya National Park（在线收听）

Critically Endangered Black Rhinos Die After Transportation To Kenya National Park

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And in what feels like a sad irony, eight endangered black rhinos have died after being moved to a new wildlife reserve in Kenya as a way of protecting them. A preliminary investigation is pointing to too much salt in the water at their new home. NPR's Shannon Van Sant reports.

SHANNON VAN SANT, BYLINE: The black rhinos were among 11 being taken from Kenya's capital and Lake Nakuru National Park to Tsavo East National Park. Save the Rhino's Cathy Dean says the relocation of endangered species can help prevent their extinction, but that the process, called translocation, is delicate and risky.

CATHY DEAN: If you are intending to catch and crate and move an animal and release it somewhere else, it's going to be under sedation - under heavy sedation at the beginning and the end of the process, and then probably sedated at some level while it's in transit.

VAN SANT: The animals then have to adjust to their new environment.

DEAN: The spaces available to wildlife, including rhinos, are shrinking. And you can't simply leave wildlife to get on with it. You've actually got to proactively manage your populations, whether that's for genetic diversity or to relieve overcrowded areas or to create new populations. And, you know, a key part of that is being able to do translocations. But we have to find out what's gone wrong so that these mistakes are never repeated.

VAN SANT: Wildlife officials were hoping a new sanctuary in Tsavo East National Park would serve as a breeding ground. Dean says there used to be thousands of black rhinos in Kenya. Now the numbers are in the hundreds. Rhino numbers have dropped dramatically in recent years because of targeting by poachers who want the rhinos' horns, and because of demand in Asia, where the horns are used in some medicines and displayed as symbols of status and wealth.

Kenya's government says it has suspended the transportation of black rhinos and that there will be an independent investigation of the rhinos' deaths. Shannon Van Sant, NPR News.

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