奇速英语

犀牛搬新家：一群白犀牛从南非到卢旺达

Last Saturday, some white rhinos in South Africa were moved to their new home, a national park in Rwanda(卢旺达). The project, organized by the group African Parks, is reported to be the largest ever, which included 19 female and 11 male rhinos. One of the organizers of the project, Jes Gruner of African Parks said, “This project is the first of its kind with so many animals from wild to wild.”

Rhinos are in great danger across Africa. Though they don’t have any natural enemies, their number has been cut down to a dangerously low level because of the hunters.

Those rhinos are southern white rhinos, and there are only about 18,000 of them left in South Africa. They are not native to Rwanda. But researchers hope that by giving them a new protected area to live in, they can help increase their numbers.

Moving rhinos isn’t easy. ▲ Males weigh 5,070 pounds while females weigh about 3,750 pounds on average. They are also amazingly powerful and can be dangerous to be around sometimes.

To move the rhinos, the organizers used a huge 747 airplane. It’s been a huge task. It had taken them three years to prepare for the project. They hope that the number of southern white rhinos will go up quickly in this protected area. They believe that in the future the number of white rhinos in the park could grow to as many as 1,000 or even 1,500.