“A beautifully filmed, poignant story of survival and human effort to bring back the rhino to Botswana after it was poached to extinction.”

This is the intimate story of hope in Africa, and it surrounds the up and down tale of rhinos in Botswana.

In the 1990’s the Botswana Defence Force launched a massive military action to stop poaching and this marked the turning point in rhino conservation there, as they are gathered up as a national effort and secured, then brought back to the wild.

This documentary covers new behaviour, adventures with lions, hyenas and elephants but it solves one of the great mysteries about rhinos, and why they move away from where they are introduced, and what they go in search of.

The rhino are back in Botswana having dodged extinction for the third time. Eleven surviving wild rhinos were captured and taken to safe houses, where they stayed for nearly ten years. After the government’s successful anti-poaching efforts, the first of these rhinos were taken back to Mombo in the Okavango Delta in 2001.

This DVD covers their re-capture, their transport by air and land, their release and their constant monitoring. It even captures the one day old rhino calf born after its mother arduous airlift and road journey.

Dereck and Beverly Joubert show us how the rhinos:

• are fitted with hidden tracking devices in their horns
  
• are flown to the Okavango in massive Hercules C-130 military planes
• adapt to their new surroundings
• co-exist with the lions, hyenas, elephants and zebras of the Okavango
• are daily monitored, tracked and looked after by Poster Mpho.

The narration is in the form of a close-up, personal account and ‘journal extracts’, creating a heart warming story. The filming by veteran wildlife film makers Dereck and Beverly Joubert is of the highest quality and accompanied by a stirring, African soundtrack. This brand new film is set to become another one of their award-winning creations.

Narrated by Dereck and Beverly Joubert.
Filmed & produced by Dereck and Beverly Joubert for National Geographic Channels (2009).

 To watch a pre-view of this DVD please visit YouTube or watch it at the bottom of this page