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.
