Precis

In Zimbabwe, the mighty rhino is making a comeback. In southern Africa, the animal was poached to near extinction in recent decades.

We visit a wildlife sanctuary, with an elite anti-poaching team, to see how the animal is being bought back from the brink.  

 It's one of the most successful rhino conservation projects in Africa. In south-eastern Zimbabwe, a private wildlife sanctuary is working hard to bring endangered rhinos back from the brink.

 In decades past, the rhino was poached to near extinction in southern Africa.

 Its horn, which can sell for its weight in gold, makes it a target for organised poaching gangs.

 In 1998, the privately-funded Malilangwe Trust had a population of 28 white and 28 black rhinos, imported from South Africa.

 Today its rhino population numbers in the hundreds.

 Reporter Michael Davie, an Australian born in Zimbabwe, returns home to witness this extraordinary wildlife success story.

 He spends time with the sanctuary's highly trained anti-poaching team, the Malilangwe Scouts, the tip of the spear against the ever present poaching threat.

 "Individually you can't win against poaching and we need every one of us to fight against poachers," says Patrick Mangondo, a Sergeant in the Scouts. "You have to be a team, a strong one."

 Davie captures all the incredible action of the hectic "rhino ops" where specialists dart the animals from helicopters then move in on 4WDs as they dash across the park. Led by ecologist Sarah Clegg, the rhino ops team collects vital data on the herd.

 "They've got this reputation of being bad-tempered and dangerous and they are, but I think it's mostly that they're just such emotional creatures," says Sarah, who's studied the animal for more than two decades.

 "They're just insecure, you know? And so they need more love."

 Malilangwe increased its rhino population to such an extent that last year, it relocated some of its Black Rhino herd to nearby Gonarezhou National Park — a former killing ground for rhinos.

 "It's what we all aim for in our careers as conservationists," says Sarah. "It's a wild park, so being able to put the rhino back into that park is like waking it up again."

 This visually stunning story has a powerful message of hope.

 "Everyone needs to know the rhino is special," says Patrick.

Episode teaser

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  For two years, Foreign Correspondent has been tracking an incredible wildlife success story, at a time when the threats are growing, and the extinction crisis is deepening.

00:10

SARAH CLEGG:  We are at the moment winning the war against poaching.

00:29

PATRICK:  I am proud because I'm doing a good job for the country.

00:34

Rhinos

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Here in Zimbabwe, conservationists and wildlife warriors have done something extraordinary. The endangered rhino is back from the brink.

00:38

SARAH CLEGG: Now it's about spreading that success beyond our borders.

00:50

Title: RETURN OF THE RHINOS

Music

00:56

Scouts run. Super:
Chiredzi, Zimbabwe

01:01

Davie driving to Malilangwe

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: I'm on my way to the Malilangwe trust. It's a not-for-profit private wildlife reserve teeming with animals, and one of the greatest concentrations of rhinos in Africa.

01:11

Super:
Michael Davie
Reporter

I was born in Zimbabwe and I grew up in Australia, and it is such a pleasure to be back in my homeland. So many familiar sights and sounds, and even smells.

01:29

Malilangwe wildlife

Music

01:40

Davie walks with Sarah

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: My guide is Sarah Clegg, one of Malilangwe's resident ecologists.

01:49

Sarah and Scout watch white rhinos

SARAH: We've got a group of five white rhinos.

01:58

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Sarah keeps track of the black and white rhino populations here.

02:03

SARAH: "What do you think of the body condition?

SCOUT: "It's good."

02:07

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Trophy hunters in the 19th century decimated southern Africa's rhino numbers. Waves of poaching over the past four decades almost wiped them out again.

SARAH: It's a constant threat. The problem lies in the fact that

02:13

Sarah interview

the value of the horn is so much more than the value of the living animal with its horn on. Extinction is not theoretical, it's real. In the last couple of years we've seen the near extinction of the northern white rhino with only two females left, no males left. And I think it's a disgrace that this can happen. We need to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

02:30

Rhinos at Malilangwe

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Today, Malilangwe is one of the most successful rhino conservation projects in Africa.

02:52

Sarah and Scout watch white rhino adult with calf

SARAH: This is a special sighting; she's one of our first rhino. She's had about ten calves here.

03:00

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Tsatsavalani is a 36 year old black rhino.

03:13

SARAH: It's always wonderful, it's always exciting, especially when they give you a bit of a charge like that.

03:22

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: In 1998, Malilangwe started with 28 black and 28 white rhinos. now hundreds of rhinos roam freely here.

03:31

SARAH: Happy animals can produce more babies that can grow populations, and that's what we need with rhinos.

03:44

Sarah runs to helicopter. Sarah and team in helicopter

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: It's day one of Rhino Ops, a week long mission to gather vital data on the herd.

SARAH: Every year, at least twice a year, we select rhino that are about to leave their mother, so that we can mark them in a way that we will be able to identify them for the rest of their lives.

04:03

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: The team is searching for a black rhino cow named Gongani and her most recent calf who is thought to be 17-months old.

04:21

SARAH:  In an ideal world we wouldn't touch these animals, but because of the challenges we have nowadays with poaching and with the reduction in habitat, the more that we know about these animals the better we are able to protect them.

04:33

Team member darts calf

Music

04:52

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: The calf is darted with an immobilising drug and will soon drop to the ground. The helicopter's hovering just over here. Where the rhino has been darted, it's underneath the helicopter.

04:55

Team notch rhino calf

The team must work fast.

05:22

SARAH: "What's the pulse?"

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: The drug can supress the respiratory system, so the calf is given oxygen.

05:25

SARAH: "Can I see how is the oxygen… the same the same."

05:34

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: A unique identifying pattern is carefully cut into the calf's ears – a process known as notching… Can you tell how old this calf is?

SARAH: Yeah, this one is 17 months, but the horn was longer, it was 19 and a half.

05:41

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: And is the mother of this calf roaming around here somewhere.

SARAH: Yeah. The mothers don't go far, you see them just nearby.

05:56

Mother rhino. Team revive calf

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Gongani's calf is almost free to go. First, she's injected with a drug to reverse the sedative.

06:04

SARAH: We need to be up in the vehicle, because they've got a far more aggressive temperament.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: The black rhinos do?

SARAH: Yeah.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Even a calf?

SARAH:  Even a tiny calf.

06:15

Calf wakes and runs to mother

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Moments later, the calf comes around and heads off to find mum. Her painted ID number will wear off in a few days.

06:26

Sarah and team back to helicopter

SARAH: Yeah, we're going to go straight to another one.

06:47

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: In the south of the reserve, members of an elite anti-poaching unit – the Malilangwe Scouts – are tracking a white rhino mum and her calf.

PATRICK: I  can say that 90% of the Zimbabweans, they've never seen a rhino – they just see it on the television.

06:59

Patrick Mangondo tracking rhino

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Sergeant Patrick Mangondo is in the lead.

PATRICK: Most of the people outside, when they see a rhino, they see money. Like, someone has dropped money on the ground. Everyone needs to know, these animals are not for being poached and make money through them.

07:15

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Armed criminal gangs run highly organised poaching operations.

07:38

Malilangwe boundary fence

Poachers have breached the Malilangwe boundary ten times and killed three rhinos.

07:48

Patrick Mangondo tracking rhino

PATRICK: A poacher is a dangerous human being. For they kill rhinos every day. It's a war, because if they come in, they'll be bringing war to us. To be a Scout, you are somebody who is patriotic, someone who is taking care of the community, someone who is proud of what he is doing.

07:56

Patrick 100%

I didn't think I would end up being someone like this.

08:29

Ext. Patrick's home at Malilangwe

08:34

Tari cooking

TARI:  He doesn't have a favourite meal or anything, but when it's done by me it's his favourite.

08:38

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Patrick and his wife, Tari, live at Malilangwe.

08:48

"Do you worry about Patrick because his job is dangerous?"

08:52

TARI: Yeah. He's always in my prayers every day. But the hardships here – having a job, it's quite an important thing. They are not easy to find, so once you have a job, thank you Jesus.

08:56

Tari serves meal

He's got a soft spot. He tries to be a bit stubborn, but yeah, he's got something. He's got a very soft spot here.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: You guys look happy together.

09:25

Tari and Patrick on couch

TARI: Are you happy with me?

PATRICK:  You are my happiness.

09:39

Malilangwe sunrise

Music

09:45

Scouts exercise

09:56

Patrick leaves for work

10:09

Scouts patrol reserve for rhino

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Malilangwe Scouts patrol the 500 square kilometre reserve every day. Every rhino sighting is documented in logbooks along with a record of each rhino's unique ear-notch pattern. The Scouts replicate the appearance of the ears on a leaf.

10:20

Exodus notches leaf

"You're just copying the notches?"

EXODUS: Yes, because the leaf has left and right already.

10:42

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  Many of the men recruited to join the Scouts were once subsistence poachers, hunting small animals for meat.

EXODUS: I was becoming a poacher

10:50

Exodus interview. Super:
Exodus Nyika
Malilangwe Scout

from when we were starting to herding the cattle and my brother teaching me how to hunt.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Did you also eat the meat that you killed?

EXODUS: Yes. We eat the meat.

10:59

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: And why were you poaching, why did you need to do this?

11:13

EXODUS: Most traditional people they like to hunt.  Like culturally.

11:15

Davie walks with First in village

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Until what age did you grow up here?

FIRST: 22 years, most of my life here.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: All of your childhood?

FIRST: Yes.

11:29

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: An hour's drive from Malilangwe is the village of Popoma. It's home to First Mafanele, a seven year veteran of the Scouts.

FIRST:  I grew up in this house.

11:38

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter:  In this one?  Were you born in this house?

FIRST: Yes.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: And how many siblings did you have sharing the house with you?

FIRST: There we four. There were four of us and my parents also.

11:51

It was difficult, very very difficult.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Can you tell me why?

FIRST: Because sleeping in a house like this one in winter time, there's no warm inside here.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: It's cold?

FIRST: It's cold, yeah.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Did you guys, you and your brothers and sisters, did you have enough to eat when you were children?\

FIRST: Not so much.

12:01

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Why did you become a Malilangwe Scout?

FIRST:  I did it because I wanted to feed my family.

12:25

Aerials. Gonarezhou National Park

Music

12:32

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Next door to Malilangwe, along the Runde River, lies Gonarezhou National Park. 

12:42

Elephants in river

It was once home to a thriving black rhino population, until poachers killed every last one. Last year, Malilangwe joined other wildlife reserves in a plan to return black rhinos to the national park.

SARAH: It's a terrible thing to have to go in and move animals around and take them away

12:51

Sarah interview

from what they're familiar with and who they're familiar with, but it has become a necessity in the world we live in now. And if you're going to put an animal through that stress, your homework needs to have been done to give that population the chance that it requires.

13:23

Sarah looks at notch logbook

"Hey, Exodus. You brought us a book. Thank you. And was he eating any food? I'm just interested in what he was eating."

EXODUS: "Just walking."

13:40

Shelves full of logbooks

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: The shelves of Malilangwe's research office are stacked with logbooks dating back to 1998.

SARAH: When you've got this accumulation of decades of data, it then becomes really, really powerful.

13:50

Davie and Sarah at logbook shelves

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: If there was one headline insight that you've gleaned over 20 odd years of working with rhinos, what would it be do you think.?

14:03

SARAH: You get to see these deep relationships that they have with other rhinos and you realise that there's so much more to them than just a feeding, surviving, mechanistic creature. Their relationships are complicated and they're obviously important for their happiness.

14:12

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Of these thousands and thousands of books full of rhino data, what you've extrapolated over the last 20 odd years is that rhinos need love.

14:31

SARAH Exactly. Just like humans need love. Rhinos need love. And so do all animals.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Yeah. Yeah. It makes perfect sense.

14:39

Drawing on their research, Sarah and her team carefully planned how to best relocate the black rhinos.

14:45

SARAH: You can't just put any old couple together, because they just won't breed unless they're happy. It's not just the animals that you're sending as the group that you need to consider keeping their stability. You need to make sure that the animals you are leaving behind also maintain their social stability.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Right. That you're not creating a vacuum there.

SARAH: An emotional vacuum…

14:52

Exodus laughs

Do you think I'm mad? Exodus?

16:13

Sarah drives through reserve

They're such a complex species, the black rhino. They've got this reputation of being bad tempered and dangerous and they are,

15:17

Sarah interview

but I think it's mostly that they're such emotional creatures. Just like in humans, a lot of the prickly people, they're not really horrible, they're just insecure.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: And you feel that way about black rhinos?

SARAH: I do. I think they're misunderstood.

15:13

Black rhino

PARADZANAI: His name is Hunzulukani.

15:46

Sarah and Paradzanai watch rhino

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Paradzanai Mafanu is a wildlife scout and tracker.

PARADZANAI: He's the one that was chasing another Scout.

SARAH: So we better not bother him too much.

15:56

He chased and caught one of our Scouts a couple of years ago.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Did the Scout survive?

16:07

SARAH:  Yeah. Keep very still. You've got a better chance than if you move, because they pick up on movement.

16:12

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Is this rhino going to charge, Sarah?

16:18

SARAH: So he was just coming up to investigate. When they get nervous they tend get a bit violent. Today was our lucky day. 

PARADZANAI: Lucky day.

SARAH: We didn't feel the horn today.

16:41

Aerials over Gonarezhou National Park

Music

17:00

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: In May 2021, 29 black rhinos made history when they were relocated to Gonarezhou National Park.

17:15

Davie and Patrick drive

For the first time in 30 years, rhinos were back. It's been a year and half now since the rhinos were relocated and I'm very curious to see how they've settled in in their new homes, so I'm heading to Gonarezhou. I'm now with Patrick from the Malilangwe Scouts who is also keen to see how they're settling in.

17:30

Rangers walk park and tune into rhino transmitters

The national park has its own team of rangers. To find the rhinos within the 5000 square kilometre park, the rangers tune in to transmitters in the animals' horns.

18:01

Richard Pahlela learned his rhino protection skills from Patrick and the Malilangwe Scouts.

18:27

Richard interview

RICHARD: They are the ones who taught me everything there was nothing that I knew, I was at zero. They taught me from the ground up.  

18:37

Ranger holds up aerial

Music

18:46

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Black rhinos are notoriously shy and they love hiding in thick bush so it's actually quite difficult to track them. We think we're getting close. Hopefully we'll see one shortly.

18:53

Rangers track rhino

Music

19:07

PATRICK: We are approaching a mother with a baby.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: What are you seeing?

PATRICK:  I am seeing that the baby is sucking the milk.

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: The baby is feeding from the mother?

PATRICK: Yeah, But we need to be careful because she heard something, so she's trying to figure out what's happening.

19:20

Music

19:50

Davie to camera

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: She got wind of us or heard us, and she just took off like a freight train through the bush. I did catch just the tiniest glimpse of her little calf, and what's so exciting about that is that that's a calf that was born here at Gonarezhou after the translocation, which is an incredible sign that this population is settling in, they're breeding, and they're starting to call this place home.

20:33

Gonarezhou park GVs

The calf is one of five born at Gonarezhou since the translocation -- the first rhino babies here in over 30 years.

SARAH: I'm happy with that and I've got great hope for the Gonarezhou translocation to be an enormous success. It's what we all aim for in our careers as conservationists. 

21:04

Sarah 100%

It's a wild park, so being able to put rhino back into that park is like waking it up again.

21:28

Malilangwe GV

Music

21:37

Junior Rangers jogging

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: At Malilangwe, these local boys are part of a conservation leadership initiative called the Junior Rangers.

PATRICK: They're coming from underprivileged families. Trying to teach people in a different way.

21:42

Patrick 100%

Like it's an awareness thing, of sending a message to the community that this conservation thing is very, very serious.

22:02

Patrick and Davie in vehicle, while Junior Rangers jog

Music

22:09

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: Why aren't you running today?

PATRICK:  Because I'm getting old.

22:15

Music

22:20

Team check on rhino

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: It's the last day of Rhino Ops, and the team are doing a check-up on a mature rhino, named Tsvotsvo.

22:25

SARAH: So this guy is 17 years old. White rhino can weigh up to two tonnes, as adult bulls.

22:41

MICHAEL DAVIE, Reporter: His extraordinary weight means the team has to move him so he can breathe more easily.

22:52

Junior Rangers in vehicle

Patrick has brought the Junior Rangers to see a rhino up close.

23:09

Junior Rangers view rhino

SARAH: I'm sure this is the first time that you have ever been up close to a rhino, okay. And like Patrick said, this one's a black rhino.  These are critically endangered so there are not too many of them left because of poaching. So this is a very special opportunity. 

123:14

It's important to us that you see a rhino up close because if you don't know something, it's very difficult to love it, and if you don't love something it's very difficult to care for it. When Patrick and I are old, we won't be able to do anything and it's up to you guys to look after these animals for us.  And just like you each of you have a name, so for the rhino each rhino is given a name.

23:32

PATRICK: Like maybe a child is being named by the parent, Scouts are the ones who give names to the rhinos, because it's like babies to them.

SARAH: This rhino is a special rhino because you came to it.  So we've decided to give it a very special name.  Patrick?

PATRICK: Chingele.

23:57

SARAH: We've decided to call it Chingele, because it's where a lot of you guys are from, the orphanage which you guys are from.

24:12

PATRICK: Understand?

JNR RANGERS: Yes.

24:18

Junior Rangers in vehicle

PATRICK: We want them to prepare themselves for the future. We want them to go out there and preach the word about conservation and wildlife. We want them to be respected in the community.

24:23

Patrick 100%

We want for them to help us make, change the world into a better world.

24:39

Malilangwe GVs

Music

24:49

Sarah driving through Malilangwe

SARAH:  I love the wildness of the place and I love that we have the capability to look after it the best way that we can. For us at Malilangwe, it's not just about the rhino or the elephants or the lions. It's about, it's about all the animals, you know, it's about the giraffe, it's about the zebra, the crocs, the birds, the plants. Keeping them all alive and keeping them all in balance and doing what they should do naturally.

25:00

Credits [see below]

Music

25:37

Out point

26:05