Nine White Rhinos Arrive in Mozambique’s Zinave — a Comeback Decades in the Making

On 6 June, nine female white rhinos completed a two-day road journey from South Africa’s Manketti Game Reserve to Zinave National Park in southern Mozambique — and with their arrival, a park once described as “silent” crossed a quiet but historic threshold. They join 30 white and 22 black rhinos moved to Zinave since 2022, finally giving the park a viable white-rhino breeding population for the first time in decades.

It’s the culmination of a ten-year rewilding effort led by the Peace Parks Foundation. Zinave, a 4,090 km² wilderness in Inhambane province and part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, lost almost all its large wildlife to years of civil war. Since 2016 it has been steadily restocked with elephant, leopard, zebra, hyena and more; five black and two white rhino calves have already been born there.

For travellers, Zinave is a reminder that Mozambique offers more than its famous coastline — a genuine Big Five wilderness is taking shape inland, with the kind of conservation story that rewards a visit. As the herd grows, Zinave’s rhinos may one day seed populations in other Mozambican parks.