Relocating Rhinos to Protect them from Poaching

Rhinos are prized by poachers for their long, pointy horns, but one group of veterinarians is working to rescue these African icons by relocating them to a safe zone, reports indicate.

Kruger National Park reached a peak of 12,200 rhinos in 2010 thanks to efforts from the Wildlife Veterinary Team in South Africa. Peter Buss along with others of his team hover in a helicopter above the Mozambique border, an area that's highly impoverished and therefore prone to poachers. By targeting rhinos with tranquilizers and then safely transporting them to a recently established "intensive protection zone" deeper within the park, they hope to save hundreds of animals from becoming victims of the cruel rhino horn trade.

"This is exactly what we've been doing for the last 30 years," Markus Hofmeyr, head of veterinary services at Kruger, told CNN. "Rhinos have recovered before."

With more than 730 rhinos killed as of September, it puts 2014 on track as the worst poaching year on record. What's more, one of the last northern white rhinos on the planet recently died, leaving just six members of the species left, all in captivity.

"Consequently the species now stands at the brink of complete extinction, a sorry testament to the greed of the human race," the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, which holds these rhinos, said in a statement.

Rhino poaching has increased dramatically in the last few years, with hundreds killed annually for their prized horns. Although there is no scientific proof of its medicinal value, rhino horn is used in traditional medicine, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It is sawed off of a dead rhino and eventually ground into a fine powder or manufactured into tablets, as a means to treat a variety of illnesses such as nosebleeds, strokes and fevers.