Reintroduction of the black rhino from Dvur Kralove Zoo to Mkomazi, Tanzania By Dr. Dana Holečková

The role of the modern zoos involves not only keeping endangered species, but also returning them into their native habitats in the wild. As Dvur Kralove Zoo is the largest rhino collection in Europe and the second largest holder in the world - following the San Diego Wild Animal Park, California, the USA - they were contacted back in 2003 by an African wildlife conservationist, Tony Fitzjohn, who works in partnership with the Government of Tanzania on the management of the northern Tanzania's Mkomazi Game Reserve, who was then prospecting animals for his eastern black rhino reintroduction project. A part of the Tsavo Ecosystem and bordering Kenya’s East Tsavo National Park, Mkomazi is a natural territory that stretches over the area of 3,272 km2 in north-eastern Tanzania (FITZJOHN 2009). Tsavo National Park was just the place where black rhinos were captured by Dvur Kralove Zoo animal managers in 1971 (HOLECKOVA 1996), including female Jimmi that still lived in Dvur Kralove in 2009. This animal was the grandmother and greatgrandmother of the young black rhino triplet returned to the country from which their ancestors were once imported. The Dvur Kralove animals are important for the wildlife as they contain genes of their progenitors that were largely exterminated by poachers.