Zambia gets 10 South Africa black rhinos

JOHANNESBURG, June 15 (Reuters) South Africa has given Zambia 10 rare black rhinos to help the southern African country restock the animals after they were wiped out locally by poachers, tourism minister Kabinga Pande said.

The rhinos had been flown to North Luangwa National Park in eastern Zambia yesterday, raising the number of the creatures in the park to 16.

Zambia imported five black rhinos a few years ago after the beasts were hunted extinction locally. A cow has since given birth.

''We used to have black rhinos but they were all wiped out (by poachers),'' Pande told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference to woo investors to Zambia.

Pande said the donation was part of broader plans by the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) to restock animals that were killed off locally by poachers.

''SADC countries agreed to increase the number of black rhinos and Zambia was identified as one of the countries which should be a beneficiary from this project,'' Pande said.

Africa's black rhino has been snatched from the brink of extinction and its numbers are on the rebound, but it still faces many threats, conservationists say.

Poaching drove black rhino numbers down to about 2,400 in the mid-1990s from 65,000 just two decades before. Poachers typically hack off the horns and leave the carcasses to rot under the African sun.

There are now around 3,600 to 4,000 now, mostly in South Africa and Namibia. Despite their name they are actually grey.

REUTERS SRS VC1002