IRF Receives Disney Conservation Grant for the recovery of Zimbabwe's Black Rhinos

The International Rhino Foundation (IRF) has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund (DWCF). The conservation grant recognizes the International Rhino Foundation’s efforts to help in the recovery of Zimbabwe’s threatened black rhinos.
“Support from the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund is vitally important to the survival of Africa’s black rhino, a critically endangered species,” according to IRF’s executive director, Dr. Susie Ellis. “Our organization came into being 20 years ago, when the population was at its absolute lowest point. Today, thanks to generous support from the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund and other donors around the world, black rhino numbers have doubled and continue to increase despite renewed poaching pressure.”
Grant funds will support daily monitoring of several hundred rhinos that inhabit approximately one-and-a-half million acres in Zimbabwe’s Lowveld region. This support helps employ expert rhino trackers who can essentially identify every individual rhino in this protected population, helping teams of wildlife professionals perform routine marking operations, de-hornings to deter poachers, emergency veterinary treatments and rescue operations, and the translocation of animals from areas threatened by poachers to more secure locations.
The Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund works to protect species and habitats, and connect kids to nature to help develop lifelong conservation values. Since its founding in 1995, DWCF has supported more than 1,000 conservation programs in 112 countries.
For information on Disney’s commitment to conserve nature visit www.disney.com/conservation.