Rare rhinos relocated to Kenya game park

Kenya's wildlife authorities yesterday started relocating nine white rhinos to a game park in the heart of the east African country where the rare beast was nearly wiped out in a poaching attack years ago.

The move is being paid for by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Agence Francaise de Development and aims at restocking the Meru National Park, 230km northeast of Nairobi, in a bid to boost tourist visits.

In a single incident in April 1989, poachers came at night, shot five rhinos at close range in their protected pen, then hacked off their horns.