Healthy ecosystems rely on a balance of flora and fauna. When species like large herbivores, predators, or pollinators face decline, the entire ecosystem can degrade. In such cases, rewilding efforts can restore ecological functions and biodiversity. Rewilding efforts exist on a continuum from safeguarding land and allowing it to regenerate over time, to species reintroductions and translocations.

Great Plains has been engaged in rewilding along this continuum for nearly twenty years – starting with the protection of the Selinda Reserve in 2006 moving into species re-introductions with Rhinos without Borders in 2015 and now translocations with Project Rewild in Zimbabwe beginning in 2022. Great Plains specializes in long-term ecosystem protection and emergency conservation efforts, including reintroducing critical species to areas where they have disappeared or declined.

Translocations as a conservation tool stem from the vision to find sustainable ways to protect wildlife in areas where they are under pressure. With protected land shrinking and wildlife facing growing pressures from human activity including encroachment into conserved areas, poaching, and habitat loss, translocations are an effective conservation tool. Translocating keystone species, like elephants, revitalizes ecosystems by ensuring their grazing, seed dispersal, and habitat-shaping behaviours which support landscape health.

Between 2015 and 2019, Great Plains moved 87 rhinos from South Africa into Botswana as part of Rhinos Without Borders. In 2022, the Great Plains Foundation successfully translocated and monitored 101 elephants in 13 herds into the Sapi Reserve in Zimbabwe. In 2024, we moved 68 zebras and 70 giraffes into a conservancy bordering Hwange National Park to bolster declining number of giraffes in the Hwange region.

Join us in helping to restore and rewild.

The cost to translocate animals varies widely depending on the species and how, how far, and where, they are being moved – from $45,000 to fly a rhino from South Africa to Botswana to $10,000 to move an elephant within Zimbabwe, to just a few thousand to move an animal like a giraffe or a zebra. For the success of the effort and the safety of the animals, a minimum of two years of post-release monitoring is included in the translocation cost for each animal. Gifts of all size will be put to good use.