Rhino take flight

The new King Shaka
International Airport (KSIA)
in Durban has just handled
its first live animal cargo –
with Dube TradePort and
Worldwide Flight Services,
together with the SA National
Parks (SANParks) and the
Frankfurt Zoological Society
(FZS), flying five black rhinos
from KZN to restock Zambia’s
now extinct rhino population.
Zambia was once home to
Africa’s third-largest rhino
population, nearing 12 000.
Popular for their strong keratin
horns, they were heavily
poached during the 1970s and
1980s, and in 1998 they were
declared nationally extinct.
Weighing in at about two
tons each the rhino were
first sedated and loaded into
heavy-duty stalls at their point
of departure. External cranes
were brought into the airport
to load the animals into the
Safair aircraft.
According to a spokesman,
the entire process went off
extremely well with the
live animals being treated
according to international
standards at the cargo terminal.