Conservation group plans to move five to 10 rhinos from South Africa, where poaching is on the rise, to Zakouma national park

The critically endangered black rhino is to return to Chad decades after it was last seen in the country as part of an ambitious relocation from South Africa, where it is under siege from poachers.

African Parks, a conservation organisation that recently reintroduced lions to Rwanda, intends to transport between five and 10 black rhinos to the Zakouma national park in Chad next year.

The black rhino is smaller than the white rhino – adults can reach 1.5 metres in height and weigh 1.4 tonnes – and distinguished by a prehensile upper lip.

Once abundant in southern Chad, the black rhino was hunted for its horn, as elsewhere in Africa. In 1972 it disappeared from Zakouma national park and by 1980 there were only about 25 left in Chad. A decade later it was considered extinct in the west African country. There are now no black rhinos left in Africa north of Kenya, and only 5,055 remain in total.

Peter Fearnhead, chief executive of African Parks, which manages Zakouma and seven other national parks on the continent, said: “Whenever we take on the responsibility for the management of a park, it involves the restoration of the park and its species to the extent that is possible. In the case of Zakouma national park in Chad, black rhinos became locally extinct decades ago, and in fact the sub-species of black rhino indigenous to that part of Africa is extinct.

“Now that the park is under our management and we have a very strong and effective anti-poaching presence, we can consider the reintroduction of key species like black rhino, even if it has to be of a different subspecies. Quite when it will happen is difficult to say because the complexities, logistics and cost of such an exercise are enormous and with numerous players, but this is our intention.”

African Parks also hopes to be able to reintroduce black rhino into Akagera national park in Rwanda, where seven lions were relocated in July.

Rhino poaching in South Africa is at a record high, up 18% in the first four months of 2015 compared with the same period a year ago. A total of 1,215 rhinos were killed in 2014, compared to 1,004 in 2013, 668 in 2012 and 448 in 2011. Their horns are used in traditional Asian medicine.

Dereck Joubert, a film-maker and wildlife conservationist who helped airlift 10 rhinos from South Africa to Botswana this year, struck a note of caution. “I would question if Chad is safe enough to risk placing any of the black rhino we have left at even marginal risk while we are losing rhinos at a rate of one every 7.5 hours even in heavy protection like South Africa,” he said.

“I think that the African Parks guys know the situation extremely well and can gauge the risk and the effectiveness of the anti-poaching better than I can, and I would not presume to second guess that. I think that one should indeed move rhinos from high poaching areas in South Africa and into places where the protection is more intense. If this is the case in Zakouma, then it makes sense.”

Another conservation expert, who did not wish to be named, questioned the wisdom of introducing a different subspecies of black rhino from the one that existed in Chad previously. A more closely related east African subspecies would be preferable, he said, but “it’s politically and financially far easier for them to secure rhinos in South Africa, so they’re cutting corners”.