Following 11 months of preparation and planning, 16 critically endangered Black rhinos were successfully captured, translocated, dehorned and released into the Kingdom of Eswatini on 9 and 10 July 2019. An entire founder breeding group of Black rhinos was acquired during 2018 by Big Game Parks, the National Wildlife Authority for the Kingdom of Eswatini. This demographically complete group consisted of adult breeding bulls and cows, sub adults and small calves.
The rhinos were acquired from a private game ranch in South Africa, where the current rhino horn poaching pressure has driven the protection costs of all rhinos to unsustainable levels, both in the private and public sectors, leaving many rhinos at risk and rhino custodians forced to disinvest in rhino conservation.