What has tree climbing got to do with rhino conservation?
Due to continual poaching and habitat loss, two of the four subspecies of African rhino are now extinct in the wild. Only around 5,300 black rhino and 18,000 southern white rhino remain. Poaching for rhino horn continues to be an existential threat.
In one area of Zimbabwe, however, a team of rangers have done such a good job of protecting their black rhino that they have been able to translocate rhino to support the population in other areas of Africa.
Along with a successful intelligence network in the local communities, and the use of a highly-trained team of Belgian Malinois tracking dogs, the rangers have adopted arborist tree-climbing techniques to access the towering local baobabs as elevated lookout points and safe campsites away from nocturnal predators.
Check out taskforcerhino.org.au for more details - they're running a charity auction in the coming weeks, and Cannings Outdoor Power Equipment have contributed a huge collection of climbing kit to support the cause.