We had a great meeting of the Aspinall Business Club in conjunction with Counterpoint networking – to hear more about the networking, see the Counterpoint Networking website here.
Port Lympne Wild Animal Park has the largest black rhino herd outside of Africa after starting with 3 at Howletts Wild Animal Park. They have been the only zoo to send animals back to the wild but are encouraging others to do the same. They have had 30 births at the park, and 27 have survived. 5 have been returned to Africa, the last ones being returned in 2007 (who have since mated, which is great news). Paul told us that rhinos are usually difficult to breed but they are doing ok at Port Lympne. They have had lots of births, with one last Christmas, and three are suspected to be pregnant now.
Paul told us how he got involved in the work because he had always wanted to work with animals and started working there when John Aspinall was hiring. Paul and Robert Boutwood both agreed that Health and Safety issues have changed the amount of contact keepers can have with animals. But Paul pointed out that everybody also uses their common sense – there are particular animals he would not go into the enclosure with, in particular a current new mum they have at the park.
We learnt that rhinos have bad eyesight but a great sense of smell and hearing!
The new rhino that was born around Christmas time has been named – Nyota (Swahili for Star). The gestation period for rhinos is 15 ½ – 16 months and in the wild the baby stays with their mother until they are 3 years old. In the park however, they remain with their mother until they are 18 months old.
We heard some great stories of transporting animals
• the £30,000 insurance needed just to get them to the airport
• the 2 ½ – 3 days travel
• Paul travelling in the hold with the rhinos to keep them calm (no sleep for him!)
The rhinos are sent back to the wild at about 3 years of age as they tend to adapt better to the wild when they are younger. Paul said they adapt to the environmental changes (when to lie out in the sun and when to stay in the shade and rest) by day two. So far not one of the rhinos that have been sent back has been lost. When they go back to the wild at 3 years old they weight just under a tonne in weight and the crates that they travel in are only 2’ longer and 1’ wider than the animal, to contain them so that they do not injure themselves.
We learnt a little about the palm oil trade and how this is endangering the rhinos’ environment – there is so much demand for palm oil worldwide that these trees are being planted to replace the forest. We will be learning more about this problem at the April meeting. The problem with this deforestation is that isolated pockets of rhino are being created since the forest they would usually move through is being destroyed and this can cause in-breeding or no-breeding.
The poaching of rhinos is at its worst in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Rhinos are poached for their horns which can be worth $30,000 to $60,000 per kilo (about one rhino-worth). In the past horn-removal was trialled to see if this would save the rhinos lives but it was found that when the poachers finally caught up with the rhino they had been tracking and found it had no horn they would kill the animal anyway so that they didn’t ‘waste their time’ tracking it in the future.
We look forward to learning more over the coming meetings.
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