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  Rare rhino calves walk to freedom
Updated 08 March 2004, 10.00
Thandi with Karen Trendler of the International Fund For Animal Welfare
A pair of endangered Black Rhino calves have taken their first free steps.

Kapela and Thandi were raised by hand for 10 months at the Wildcare centre in South Africa, which gets lots of its money from animal lovers in the UK.

The cute pair, both abandoned by their mums, have been moved to a national park, where they'll be safe from poachers who hunt them for their horns.

There are only 3,100 black rhinos left in Africa, and only 850 of the type that Thandi belongs to.

Thandi and Kapela
Thandi (left) and Kapela, a male

She is a very rare sub-species of Black Rhino, bicornis bicornis, and it's hoped she will breed in the wild.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) helped raise cash for the pair.

An Ifaw spokeswoman said saving them was "a vitally important step in helping to preserve, then rebuild endangered rhino populations."

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