#Repost @smithsonianmagazine (@get_repost) ・・・ Day 2 -#Takeover. Images © @jasonflorio Image 1: A veterinarian fires an opioid tranquilliser dart at a rhino chosen to be on the first convoy. The pilot, 23 year old Andreas, manoeuvred the R44 helicopter like hummingbird, bobbing and weaving it into position so the vet could meet his mark with one shot floriophoto.com _ _ The rhino population in Africa has fallen by more than 95 percent since 1900, to just 21,000 southern white rhinos and 5,000 black rhinos; 80 percent of those animals are in South Africa’s game reserves and on ranches. In a response to the dire situation that is facing rhinos in Africa, with rhino poaching at an all-time high, concerned conservationists teamed to create Rhinos Without Borders. RWB plans to relocate 100 white rhinos from South Africa to safe havens in Botswana, where poaching is almost non existent. Writer Todd Pitock and I joined the first convoy of 15 rhinos to make the 800 mile journey by road from Free State, South Africa to their new home in the Okavango Delta. __________ #Rhinorelocation#smithsonianmagazine #botswana#photography #documentary#rhinocerous #savetherhino#poachers #SouthAfrica #jasonflorio#toddpitock #rhinoswithoutborders#OkavangoDelta #FreeState#conservation #R44helicopter#whiterhino #wildlife
