Horns of a dilemma: retiree to fly 80 South African rhinos to Australia
Source: Agence France-Presse
Horns of a dilemma: retiree to fly 80 South African rhinos to Australia
Former sales executive who emigrated to Australia 30 years ago is hatching a daring plan in an attempt to save the species from poachers
Agence France-Presse
Friday 13 May 2016 22.26 EDT
A retired South African sales executive who emigrated to Australia 30 years ago is hatching a daring plan to airlift 80 rhinos to his adopted country in an attempt to save the species from poachers.
Flying each animal on the 11,000-kilometre journey will cost about $A60,500, but Ray Dearlove believes the expense and risk is essential as poaching deaths have soared in recent years.
The rhinos will be relocated to a safari park in Australia, which is being kept secret for security reasons, where they will become a seed bank to breed future generations.
Our grand plan is to move 80 over a four-year period. We think that will provide the nucleus of a good breeding herd, Dearlove said while visiting South Africa to organise for the first batch to be flown out.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/14/horns-of-a-dilemma-retiree-to-fly-80-south-african-rhinos-to-australia
[center]
Ray Dearlove with very young rhinos. [/center]
LonePirate
(13,423 posts)Hopefully his project succeeds and he helps to save these fine creatures.
7962
(11,841 posts)I seriously doubt that poaching will be nearly as big a problem in AU as it is in Africa. but hopefully they will have security, because there's always SOME chance of these idiots showing up
OwlinAZ
(410 posts)Thank you Mr. Dearlove.
Keep your secret well.
babylonsister
(171,065 posts)LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)Quick, somebody get SyFy on the line, I have an Original Movie script to sell.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)While flying to Australia, they stop in Japan to refuel, and a dose of radiation from the Fukushima plant alters their DNA. By the time they are released in Australia, they mutate into prolifically-breeding juggernauts of destruction. They stampede across the Sydney Harbor Bridge which collapses from the weight sending a huge wave into the Opera House, the stylized sail-like roof of which deflects the wave into an upward cyclonic vortex that becomes a raging mass of wind, water and radioactively-mutated killer mega-rhinos.
But, let's hope they get lucky and make it safely instead.
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)Maybe save that for the sequel.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Flaxbee
(13,661 posts)Thank you! You have a better link (I found the story at accuweather).
So glad someone is doing this. Makes me insane thinking about what poachers are doing to rhinos and elephants and tigers and ...
Judi Lynn
(160,530 posts)Hoping they can make a difference, and influence others who have the ability to use their wealth for real, lasting good on our planet.
ffr
(22,670 posts)And kill any mother F-ers and their chain of despicables who show up there looking to kill one of these magnificent creatures for any reason whatsoever!!
Judi Lynn
(160,530 posts)It would be heaven to take their victories away permanently, instead of letting them kill them all down to the last one.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Big Pharma is suppressing the natural healing powers of rhino horn.
McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)Chillidog
(4 posts)Seems to me for the same price he can get a helluvalot more than just 80 by boat.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)This guy is probably spending down his bonus miles.
Judi Lynn
(160,530 posts)FSogol
(45,485 posts)less time being crated.
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)reddread
(6,896 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Miserable flight.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)Last edited Sat May 14, 2016, 10:27 AM - Edit history (1)
And thus except for some mules for Burma, the US preferred to ship tanks. When you ship live animals you have to ship them with food and water. You also need have a crew to clean up the urine and excrement and to exercise them. Thus the horses to fill a cavalry division took up the same shipping as a tank division. Tanks did NOT need to run every day, thus no water or fuel for them while on the ship, and no need for a crew to take care of the tanks on a daily basis. Thus horses took up as much cargo space as tanks and it is for this reson the US dismounted it cavalry units during WWII, not that they were obsolete (in fact Patton, among other generals wanted horse mounted units, for such units could go where no roads existed, tanks could technically do the same, but needed supplies transported by road bound trucks, thus in areas with no or poor roads, horse mounted units were perferred till the introduction of helicopter troops in the late 1950s, when the US finally eliminated its last mule unit).
With aircraft, you just pack in the animals and unload them eight to twelve hours later. The animals can survive NOT being feed or watered that long, you just feed them and water them when they land.
Exactly when this started is unknown to me, I first read about such transport in the 1980s when the US was shipping Mules to Pakistan for use by anti Soviet guerrillas in Afghanistan. Arabs have been shipping sheep from Australia to Saudi Arabia for use in Animal sacrifices since about the same time period. Thus transport of animals by air gets around the main problems of shipping animals by ship. No need to ship water and food with the animals, no need to ship crewmen to feed, water, exercise or clean up after the animals. A lot more efficient to ship live animals by air then ship.
Bayard
(22,073 posts)They are usually "standing stalls", where they are tied. And they are watered, some hay. Very humane, and a relatively short amount of time. Each travels with an individual groom to take care of it. However, the pilot is equipped with a euthanasia gun to take out one that has become unruly enough to endanger the flight--even if its a 100K animal.
Wonder if this will be the same for the rhino's? This man is a saint! Wish there were more people doing this with endangered species.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)Most horses know about stalls and are under 1000 pounds, thus 2x4 pine wood is ideal for horses. For cows heavier stalls are preferred. Rhinos require even heavier fencing. I once visited a ranch in Texas who had built some very heavy pens to hold rhinos. The pens were massive for rhinos are large.
Rhinos weigh 4000 to 5000 pounds, that is five times what horses weigh with a comparable increase in strength. Thus the stalls will have to be reinforced with increase in weight. Probably the stalls will be used and then removed. That is not that hard to do, the stalls should be on lockable wheels, just to be removed to be cleaned. Thus removal of the stalls and reinstalling them as needed is one way to work around the extra weight of such stalls, weight is important in air travel.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Noah did it without any of that stuff.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)Modern day rhinos are NOT known to be as co-operative.
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)I enjoyed it, and now will have to look deeper. History is my hobby.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)Last edited Sat May 14, 2016, 09:53 PM - Edit history (2)
Preston mule O8K0, had traveled from the US in 1944 for the Burma Campaign, turned over to the Nationalist Chinese and some how the Communist ended up with it and US forces captured it in Korea in 1952.
http://olive-drab.com/od_army-horses-mules_korea.php
More details on muies in WWII and Korea:
http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/WWII/mules_of_mars.htm
An Article on the British policy of "Silencing" their mules by cutting their vocal codes. It prevented the mules from braying (which can be heard three miles away) but since the silenced mules could NOT hear each other, when it came to cross rivers, it was almost impossible to do so with the silence mules (un-silenced mules, hearing each other braying, hearing each other, they crossed the rivers easier then the "Silenced" Mules):
https://leminhkhai.wordpress.com/2014/10/14/the-silenced-mules-of-world-war-ii-burma/
Chillidog
(4 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)hatrack
(59,587 posts)snort
(2,334 posts)Glorfindel
(9,729 posts)At last a bit of good news on the conservation front.
2naSalit
(86,612 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,530 posts)The audacious plan to airlift 80 rhinos to Australia
By Jon Donnison
BBC News, Sydney
10 May 2016
A South African expatriate's desire to protect rhinoceroses from poachers is driving an unusual plan to breed the giant animals down under.
It's sometimes said that people look like their pets. But that's not the case with Ray Dearlove. He's a a statuesque slab of fellow, built like a prop forward with the weathered features of somebody who's spent most of his life under the sun in South Africa and Australia. When he speaks, you listen.
Snapping around his ankles at his home in suburban Sydney is a somewhat yappy little terrier. They make an unlikely pair that pours water on the pet theory. Yet "Rhino Ray" does bear some resemblance to the beast he loves more than any other.
"I have a deep passion for rhinos," the 67-year-old tells me. "The rhino is the closest thing you will ever see to the dinosaur. They're incredible animals."
More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-36244910