Up to 500 rhino will be evacuated from Kruger National Park in South Africa which has been blighted by poachers hunting them for horns.

The authorities announced the plan to airlift the animals to safer areas in the country by helicopter because illegal killings have soared in recent years, despite the deployment of soldiers throughout the nature reserve.

Figures show a shocking increase - 13 were illegally killed in 2007, while 1,004 were butchered last year. And this year 630 rhinos have already lost their lives – 408 of them in Kruger.

'A decision has been made on this issue of translocation,' said Edna Molewa, South Africa's environment minister on Tuesday.

'Relocations from the Kruger National Park and the creation of rhino strongholds could allow the total rhino population size of South Africa to continue to grow.'

Poaching has decimated the Kruger rhino population.The WWF estimates that there are just 300 black rhino left in the park, and about 3,000 white rhino.



The safest way to travel: A rhino is hoisted high into the air by its ankles in Eastern Cape, South Africa

Up to 500 animals will be evacuated as a result of poaching, which has decimated the rhino population

In a bid to save the endangered black rhino, conservationists have already begun transporting them to new homes to encourage breeding in other nature reserves.

The video features a black rhino being airlifted from the Eastern Cape to a new home at a 34,000 hectares reserve in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa, as part of the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project.



The project, a partnership between conservation groups including WWF and Eastern Cape Parks, was set up in 2003 - with the aim of increasing the population of the critically endangered black rhino by expanding its territory.



Over the last decade, nine new black rhino populations have been created in South Africa, with more than 140 rhinos relocated.



The beasts were airlifted to a new home at a 34,000 hectares reserve in Kwa Zulu Natal as part of the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project

Hanging in the balance: Illegal rhino killings have soared in recent years, despite the deployment of soldiers through the nature reserve

While the sight of the animal hanging from its ankles might be unsettling to some, it is considered safer than transporting it on the ground because the animal spends less time under anaesthetic.

Project leader Dr Jacques Flamand said: 'We used to transport rhinos by lorry over very difficult tracks, or airlifted in a net. This new procedure has proved to be a safer bet.

'As a vet, this is my method of choice because it is quick and harmless to the rhinos, which is always our main concern in these operations.

'All the rhinos have started eating immediately after release – a sure sign that they were not in distress.'

Over the last decade, nine new black rhino populations have been created in South Africa, with more than 140 rhinos relocated

The helicopter translocations usually take less than ten minutes and are used to relocate rhinos from inaccessible areas.

The purpose of the project, which is in its tenth year, is to increase numbers by providing the animals with more territory to breed on.

Seven of the new breeding sites are in KwaZulu-Natal and two are further north in Limpopo.

To date more than 40 calves have been born on sites ran by the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project.

Good news: Over the last decade, nine new black rhino populations have been created in South Africa, with more than 140 rhinos relocated

In the 1960s, an estimated 65,000 black rhino were found across Africa but poaching decimated their numbers to just 2,000 in the early 1990s.





Conservation efforts have now doubled numbers to an estimated 4,000 - but poaching remains the biggest threat to their survival.

Rhino have become increasingly vulnerable to poaching as demand for the animal's horns has increased , especially from China.