“Honestly, I was so scared. I thought he would crush our vehicles,” says Noko the ranger in this week’s Peace Parks TV episode, referring to Noko the rhino’s dramatic final goodbye in Mozambique’s Zinave National Park.
Noko Meso shares his deeply personal rewilding story, beginning in Exxaro Resources’ Manketti Game Reserve, in South Africa. “I’ve been working in the field for so many years monitoring these rhinos, following the tracks and combating poaching. It’s a legacy. And now that these rhinos will be released here in Mozambique, I have mixed emotions,” he says.
As one of Manketti’s field rangers, it was Noko’s job to protect the reserve’s herds of white and black rhino from poachers. This was not only a huge responsibility, but an intense bonding experience developed through living and working so closely with these animals.
As poaching threats in Manketti intensified, Mozambique’s National Administration for Conservation Areas (ANAC), Peace Parks Foundation and Exxaro, with the support of the Government of South Africa, partners, funders and donors, planned and executed a series of remarkable landmark translocation operations. This involved relocating 37 rhino 1,000 km across the Mozambican border to rewild them to Zinave National Park. With advanced security measures and a reinforced ranger force, Zinave’s wildlife sanctuary promised a safer and more hopeful future than in South Africa. It was a pioneering and challenging move, and an emotional experience for Noko and his fellow rangers when the time came for the rhino to go.
“When we were doing the black rhino capture, one of them was named after me – and this came as the biggest reward I’ve ever received in my life,” Noko relates. Now this is his last, bittersweet opportunity to say farewell in Zinave. As he is being interviewed, and expressing that “It’s nice to see him again here, just to say goodbye for the last time,” unexpectedly, Noko the rhino takes his final chance to salute his guardian!. Black rhinos are known for their short tempers, so the crew scrambles quickly to their vehicle for safety.
Noko has settled safe and happy in his new home, and Zinave is flourishing in the herd’s presence. Since 2015, ANAC and Peace Parks have worked to jointly restore, develop and protect the park, which has seen a transformation from a silent to vibrant protected area. Here, rewilding is reviving the landscape. As their numbers grow naturally, the rhino will play an increasingly vital role in Zinave’s health and restoration, and Noko will impact many more lives – both those of his new rangers working tirelessly to protect him, and of passionate visitors to Mozambique’s first Big Five national park.
Visit peaceparks.org for more rhino and rewilding stories.
