The Imire Safari park, 100km southeast of Harare, in Zimbabwe is grieving. All three adult female Rhinos have been shot dead by armed men in camouflage.
Chris Hamilton, who has been running the park for the last 20 years and devoted to the breeding programme for the most endangered species on the earth, is deeply grieved at the loss of their ‘friends’. A tearful Chris, who has just returned to the UK from Zimbabwe, labeled the situation ‘desperate’.
What is even more tragic is the fact that one of the rhinos, Amber (in the picture), died along with her unborn calf. The family is now left with four ‘stunned’ orphan rhinos. The entire situation aborted the breeding program, though Charles is determined to continue with it.
The shooting was a threatening call for the conservationists because there are only about 3,000 black rhinos left in the wild, and the species is listed as Critically Endangered by the World Conservation Union, which means they ‘face an extremely high risk of extinction’. Last year, one of the four sub-species was declared as ‘already extinct’.
The search for the gunmen is under way. It is being suspected that the shooting of the black rhinos is related to Zimbabwe’s battles over land-ownership.