Namibia Starts Relocating Rhinos to Fight Rising Poaching Threat

Namibia, home to one of the world’s largest populations of black rhinos, has started relocating the animals from poaching hot spots to privately-owned farms as it battles escalating poaching of the endangered pachyderms.

Relocated rhinos are being placed in the care of private commercial farmers while remaining the property of the state, Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism Pohamba Shifeta said by phone from the capital, Windhoek, on Friday. The government is spreading rhinos around the southern African nation, placing them with farmers who are better able to protect them, as it struggles to defend the animals from poachers who want to remove their horns.