You can see rhinos in South Africa – but there are other spots around the world where you might glimpse these rare creatures, says Lyn Hughes
Namibia has been a huge conservation success in recent years; a staggering 42% of the country is now under some sort of protection, with local community conservancies accounting for 18% of that. Communities benefit from tourism activities, which create jobs and revenue in rural areas.
Not only is Namibia the only country where the lion population is increasing, the numbers of black rhino have grown to more than 1,500 over the past few years, while a few hundred white rhino live here too. The main populations live in Etosha National Park and the Kunene area, the Palmwag Reserve, and also on private land and in community-run conservancies under a unique custodianship programme.
Uniquely, the black rhinos of the Kunene region are desert-adapted, covering huge areas, climbing mountains and surviving on drinking only every few days. White rhinos are found in Etosha National Park and the Waterberg.
Although there are rhinos in some of Kenya’s national parks (try the Mara Triangle for the best chance), more than half of the country’s rhinos live in heavily guarded private reserves.
The not-for-profit 90,000-acre Ol Pejeta conservancy has the largest population of black rhino in East Africa. The conservancy is also home to four of the world’s last remaining seven northern white rhinos. They were translocated from a zoo in the Czech Republic, and it is hoped they will provide a breeding population. Ol Pejeta has a range of accommodation and welcomes day visitors too; see www.olpejetaconservancy.org.
Lewa is another inspirational example of a successful private conservancy and like Ol Pejeta, ensures that the local communities benefit. Lewa also offers a wide range of accommodation options.
The Kingdom of Swaziland may be small, but it punches well above its weight, being one of the best places in Africa to see free-roaming rhinos. Beautiful Hlane Royal National Park is home to a wide range of flora and fauna including placid white rhinos, as well as lions, giraffes and Africa’s largest population of white-backed vultures. Take a ‘Rhino Drive’, which offers the possibility of approaching rhino on foot.
Mkhaya Game Reserve, in south-east Swaziland, is rugged bushland dotted with thorn trees, which suits its healthy population of black rhino as well as white rhinos. You can spot them on game drives or track them on walking safaris. Other wildlife includes elephants, hippos, buffalo and birds.
Both reserves have varied accommodation options and offer excellent value for money compared to many African parks and reserves.
Only 600 one-horned rhinos remained in Asia in 1975, but numbers have now increased to around 3,000, with more than half of those found in Assam’s magical Kaziranga National Park. You are guaranteed to see one-horned rhinos on the open plains here, whether from a ‘gypsy’ jeep or on elephant-back.
Kaziranga, bordered in the north by the Brahmaputra River, is a mix of forest grassland, marsh and pools. It floods in summer during the monsoon – the river bursts its banks – and 2012 has been a particularly tough year, with some rhinos lost to high floodwaters and poaching.
The park has a significant tiger population too, though you’d be extremely lucky to spot one in the tall elephant grass. Other mammals here include elephant, swamp deer and sloth bear, while there are 490-plus species of birds.
Nepal is the other stronghold for the one-horned rhino. The country has been a rare conservation success story in the past couple of years, and an estimated 534 greater one-horned rhinos remain in Nepal. The majority are found in Royal Chitwan National Park, in the country’s southern Terai lowlands.
You can explore the park on elephant back, by jeep or on foot. Tigers are sometimes seen here, while leopards, gharial crocodiles, sloth bears and 430 species of bird call this home too.
There are several renowned lodges deep inside the park; the village of Sauraha, just outside the park on the Rapti River, has a range of accommodation to suit all budgets. The village is also actually one of the best areas for rhino-spotting – the animals have been known to cross the river at night to raid crops.
There is little chance of seeing the two rarest species of rhino, the Javan and the Sumatran.
Not only are they critically endangered but they are secretive and live in dense tropical forest – but you can get lucky you never know (see Wanderlust reader John’s story below)!
The Sumatran rhino is found in Sumatra and Borneo. There are populations in Gunung Leuser, Way Kambas and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Parks. The Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary (SRS), which runs a captive breeding programme, has been set up within a semi-natural environment in Way Kambas; its first baby was born this year.
The Javan rhino is the rarest of all. They used to be found in Vietnam as well as Indonesia, but what was believed to be Vietnam’s last remaining individual was killed in October 2011. A tiny population – thought to be no more than 50 – lives in Ujung Kulon National Park in Java.
The chances of spotting one is low, but Wanderlust reader John Ironmonger was very lucky...
“We knew it was something big. Very big. Something was thrashing and splashing behind the curtain of palm fronds that shielded the river we floated down in Ujung Kulon National Park. We sat frozen in silence. The whole undergrowth seemed to be waving.‘Rhino,’ whispered the ranger, and there it was – the huge brown backside of a Javan rhino just a metre or so away on the bank. Something else was crashing towards us. I saw the fleeting shape of a smaller rhino and my wife Sue caught a clear sight of them both – a mother rhino and her calf framed in the palm fronds. And then they were gone.
"We have no photograph to prove it, only our own memories and the account of a Javan park ranger called Dedi Hidayat who told it all to the park staff when we finally got back.
"We had been relying on luck and luck is what we definitely had!”
Read more about John’s encounter: notablebrain.blogspot.co.uk
