DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian authorities on Tuesday received nine black rhinos offered by South African authorities to improve the east African country's tourism, an official said.
Adolf Mkenda, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, who received the rhinos at the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA), said the animals that are in the list of endangered species will boost tourism in the country.
Mkenda said the government will make sure that the endangered rhinos will be fully protected against poachers.
He said the rhinos from South Africa's Thoba Tholo game reserve will be sheltered at Sasakwa area in the Serengeti game reserve, adding that the rhinos' transportation to Tanzania was facilitated by Grumeti Fund, a wildlife conservation organization.
In July this year, the Directorate of Presidential Communication at State House in Dar es Salaam, said in a statement that the elephant and rhino populations in the country have begun to rebound after a government crackdown dismantled organized criminal networks involved in industrial-scale poaching.
The statement said as a result of the work of a special task force launched in 2016 to fight wildlife poaching, elephant populations have increased from 43,330 in 2014 to over 60,000 presently.
The statement said the number of rhinos had increased from just 15 to 167 over the past four years.
